Euphemia of the Duel Academy
by Francis456
Summary: Full summery inside Rated M just to be safe. Euphemia is revived after the SAZ massacre and brought to the YuGiOh world where she enrolls in Duel Academy, making firends and rivals as well as risking her life to save the world
1. The Beginning

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**The Beginning**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names).

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

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><p><strong>Summery <strong>– After the devastating events of the SAZ massacre, Euphemia lies dead and the Japanese people blame her for what happened unaware that it was an accident caused by the stupidity of Zero. Enter Jaden Yūki, a boy from another world who has travelled to Euphemia's world at the behest of a higher power to revive and take her back to his world so she can start afresh, though with her memories of her previous life and world sealed. Once on her feet in this new world and with no memories of who she was before awakening and finding herself in unfamiliar surroundings, with help from Jaden and Yūgi Mutō she gets into the game of Duel Monsters and by Jaden's recommendation, tries out for a place in the illustrious Duel Academy. Once in Duel Academy under the name, Euphemia Felixton, Euphemia meets friends and rivals alike, including old friends of Jaden's; third-year student, Tyranno Hassleberry and second-year student, Blair Flannigan. Unfortunately all is not well as Euphemia and her new friends are inevitably dragged into the mystical magical side of Duel Monsters where they learn that to some people; Duel Monsters is more than just a game, where losing means losing your soul or even death and one rival is determined to be rid of Euphemia no matter what the cost; even if it means selling her soul and humanity to a demon; a demon that Jaden is all too familiar with and has its own plans regarding Euphemia, which begs the question, did Jaden really bring Euphemia to his world to help her or does the higher power behind the scenes have an ulterior motive in regards to Euphemia; a motive that even Jaden is unaware of?

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><p><strong>Code Geass world – Near Mount Fuji, "Area Eleven", Airship Avalon<strong>

Suzaku Kururugi sat facing Princess Euphemia's bed as she lay dying in an incubator like machine with an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth after the horrible events that turned the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan into a bloodbath; apparently on Euphemia's orders. However Suzaku just could not believe it. He just could not believe that Euphie would do something like that. It just was not in her nature to do something like that. He knew her well enough to know that she had not deceived her and that her kind and caring nature was not just a façade she had concocted to string him along. This had to be a mistake. However all he could do was just stare down at his Knight of Honour badge that identified him as Euphemia's Knight of Honour and clench his eyes shut as he remembered seeing Zero, the masked terrorist that he was sure had a hand in the massacre shoot Euphemia and he found himself cursing at his failure to protect her, but also because he had wanted to confront her on why she had given that order, though he was sure that it to have somehow been Zero's doing. He believed that Zero had somehow caused the massacre in order to discredit Euphemia, which was probably also why he had shot her; to silence her and make sure she did not reveal the truth, but he still wanted to hear Euphie's side of the story.

"Suzaku," Euphemia's weak voice came from inside the incubator, bringing the Honorary Britannian out of his thoughts as he glanced down at her in confusion.

"Euphie?" he said as Cecile Croomy, who was standing behind him to the side with her boss, Lloyd Asplund bent over and pushed a button at the side of the incubator behind where Euphemia's head was, which withdrew the oxygen mask and opened up the incubator, which would enable Euphemia to reach up if she wanted to, but Suzaku knew that in her current state, she would not be able to.

Euphemia looked deathly pale and fragile and it pained Suzaku to no end seeing her like that; especially with that rather sad and confused look on her face as she stared up at him.

Cecile then turned towards the door and brought her hand up to Lloyd's shoulder as she started to walk, ushering Lloyd to follow her, which he did without a fight as he realised that Suzaku needed to be alone with Euphemia at the moment.

"Euphie… I have to know…" Suzaku said once he was sure Cecile and Lloyd were gone and out of earshot as he gave Euphemia a serious yet gentle look, "Why did you issue that order at the stadium?"

"Order… what are you talking about…?" Euphemia asked in confusion, much to Suzaku's own confusion.

"Uh, wha…?" he started to say.

"Never mind that," Euphemia went on, interrupting him as her eyes suddenly widened as if in shock, "Suzaku… you're Japanese, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah," Suzaku said softly, confused as to the shakiness and apparent fear that suddenly seemed to grip her voice.

However, if he had have looked closely into her eyes, he would have noticed an eerie reddish orange glow surrounding her irises, but unfortunately he did not think to do this.

"Euphie?" he said as he leaned closer to her in alarm as he noticed that she seemed to be squirming.

"No…" Euphemia suddenly said much to Suzaku's confusion, causing him to back off ever so slightly in confusion, "I mustn't… I… I can't even think such a thing."

"What the…?" Suzaku thought as he noticed tears starting to form in Euphemia's eyes as she moved to clench her eyelids shut, but failed to notice the eerie glow the edges of her irises gave off, "What is this?"

"No… please…!" Euphemia went on apparently in a pleadingly desperate tone as her eyelids closed over, which only served to confuse Suzaku even further, "Suzaku…?"

"Yes, Euphie?" Suzaku said, deciding to play along for now.

"The ceremony…?" Euphemia went on as she opened her eyes and the eerie glow that had adorned her irises had completely vanished, "Did it go alright? Is Japan okay?"

"Euphie…?" Suzaku said in shocked surprise as his eyes widened as he was unable to comprehend what was happening with Euphie, "Don't you remember?"

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><p>Meanwhile, down at the stadium where the SAZ ceremony had supposed to have taken place, Lelouch vi Britannia a.k.a. Zero was met with cheers as he made his way out onto the stage. People in the crowd started shouting out in joy with their hands at either sides of their mouths and raised their arms into the air, apparently cheering in celebration of the Black Knights managing to defeat the Britannians and rescuing them.<p>

However, at the front on the crowd stood an eighteen-year-old teen with chocolate-brown eyes and brown and orange hair. From the look of his hair, one would mistakenly believe that he had it dyed orange and his natural hair colour was in the process of reclaiming its dominance if it was not for the strange formation the borderline between the two colours formed. The boy wore small red boots with grey highlighting the toe areas and the back and also outlined the bottom with red circles beneath the ankles and thick grey rims at the legging openings. He also wore grey jeans, a grey jumper that was a darker shade of grey from his jeans and over his jumper was a red blazer with a white band running over his shoulders and all the way round the back with a dark red outline. The left end of the white band was pointed with a button to button up the blazer and the right end was rectangular. Also there was a white area of the blazer, outlined by the same shade of red as the outline of the white band that would have highlighted the centre of the boy's chest if the blazer was buttoned up coming to a point at just above the stomach. There was another button at the bottom of the blazer and the collar of the blazer, though red had the same darker shade of red outline at the white areas. What made this boy stand out despite looking Japanese himself was that his clothes looked neither old, dirty or torn, but fortunately for him, everyone else was so wrapped up in Zero's appearance that they either failed to notice him or were just simply too excited to care. They were also too caught up in Zero's presence that they failed to realise that he was the only person not cheering and was in fact glaring up at Zero as he started to bring his left arm up at his side.

"People of Japan," Zero stated as he held his arm out at his side, "And all who are oppressed by the Empire of Britannia."

The boy just continued to glare up at Zero as a fat yellow tabby cat with brown markings on the top of its head, across its back and extending to its tail walked in front of him and sat down. Not far from the boy, a Japanese man stood with a video camera pointed at Zero and next to the camera was a Britannian man with dirty blonde hair tied into a ponytail and wearing a Black Knights uniform with a smug grin on his face.

"Long have I waited," Zero continued as he brought his arm back into his cloak, "All through the struggles of Britannia's injustices, I've waited for them to come to their senses; but that hope was betrayed, by an act of barbarism that can only be called genocide."

"Yeah right, you two-bit liar," the boy at the front of the crowd thought as he continued to glare up at the masked man; still not gaining attention from the rest of the crowd, including those beside and behind him, "If it wasn't for the fact that this was an accident, I'd say you'd make an even better Supreme King than I. However, accident or not, poor Euphie's gonna have to live with this for the rest of her life."

"Focus, Jaden," a voice came from inside his head, "We're here to save Euphemia and give her a new start."

The boy, Jaden nodded, though his glare never left the masked marauder.

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><p>"What about everyone that was there?" Euphemia had gone on to ask Suzaku back up on board the Avalon n its sickbay; totally unaware that she was now officially the most hated person in Japan and perhaps even the world, "Are the Japanese happy?"<p>

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><p>"We'll never forgive you!" a Japanese man yelled from back down at the stadium as the Japanese started to voice their outrage over the massacre they believed Euphemia had orchestrated.<p>

"She's a murder!" a woman shouted as many of the crowd's expressions became expressions of rage.

"She's a filthy witch!" a third person shouted in pure outrage.

"Liar!" a fourth added.

Jaden cringed at hearing the insults and shook his head. These people did not know the truth and he doubted that they would ever know. To them, a kind-hearted and caring young girl would now be forever remembered as a hateful deceitful murderess from Hell and he could not help but picture people gathering in an alternative dimension hurling verbal abuse at him for he had once led massacres against entire villages, killing men, women and children alike. Granted, he had not been himself at the time and had surrendered to the dark half of his soul, but he knew that was no justification for what he did as the Supreme King. It was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life and unlike Euphemia who had been under the influence of her half-brother's Geass; he remembered everything he had done while the Supreme King had been in control of his body. He remembered being mentally tortured by flashbacks of his time as the Supreme King and it had dispirited him to the point where he had been prepared to die in order to escape facing up to his sins.

"At least with Geass, Euphie won't remember what she did… am I right?" he thought questioningly.

"That's right," the voice that had spoken earlier said, "While under the influence of Zero's Geass, the subject has no memory of what they did while under its influence, but unfortunately, if Euphemia were to survive, which is doubtful; due to the nature of her command, she would automatically kill any Japanese person she happens to come across, which is why she must die so we can revive her. Once she dies, the command will die with her and won't be revived with her."

Jaden nodded and was about to answer.

"Euphemia is the symbol of Britannia's hypocrisy," Zero spoke up, continuing with his speech and interrupting Jaden before he could reply as he brought his arm up at his side, brought it in front of him and bent his elbow bring his arm back as he clenched his fist, "A murder cloaked in the flag of a nation."

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><p>"How was the ceremony?" Euphemia asked, repeating her question from the Avalon's sickbay, unaware of what was transpiring at the stadium, "Do you think I did… okay?"<p>

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><p>"I hope that bitch burns in hell!" a man shouted from back at the stadium as the people continued to unleash their fury over Euphemia.<p>

"We're finished with your lies!" a second man put in.

"Death to them all!" a woman shouted, voicing her opinion on the Britannian population in their entirety.

Jaden could only cringe at hearing those remarks while being thankful that no one had noticed him yet, though even though he had the means of dealing with the people should they notice him, he would rather not draw unwanted attention to himself. He had a job to do and he was going to do it one way or another.

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><p>"Euphie… the Special Zone is…" Suzaku said, answering Euphemia as he still sat by her bedside on board the Avalon, but he trailed off noticing Euphemia's worried look, which only served to confuse him even further, but he decided to ease her worries and put on a fake smile, "A great success. The Japanese people were given back their home… and you did it."<p>

"Oh, thank god," Euphemia said and she lay her head down and closed her eyes in relief, though Suzaku could not help but feel absolutely rotten for lying to her like that, but sensing that she was dying, he opted that she should die feeling at peace with herself and decided that this lie was the best way to do that.

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><p>"I hereby declare our independence from Britannia," Zero went on with his speech back at the stadium, much to Jaden's disgust, "But don't take this the meaning the resurrection of your fallen nation. We will not turn back the hands of time. The new Japan we go on to build, shall be broad enough to accept all peoples, histories and ideologies; where the strong shall not reign over the weak."<p>

"Spare me," Jaden thought; shaking his head in disgust, "You'll end up becoming a hypocrite. People like you always do."

"And it shall be called…" Zero went on as he brought his arms out of his cloak and crossed them over his chest, "The United States of Japan!"

He then uncrossed his arms and rose them up at his sides, causing his cloak to rise up behind him and then fall as the people started to cheer once again.

"Would they be cheering if they knew that you were really a Britannian Prince?" Jaden thought and the cat moved out of its sitting position and started to follow Jaden as he walked towards the nearest exit.

He then sighed to himself as he shook his head.

"I only hope we're doing the right thing here," he thought with a hint of worry lingering in his head, "If this fails, I really wouldn't want to be Euphie."

"He's done it," he heard the Britannian in a Black Knight uniform say in an excited tone; "This is the birth of a nation."

Jaden just shook his head and continued to walk towards the exit, thankful that the people in the crowd did not notice him.

"Now then, on to phase two," he said as a bright white light portal appeared in front of him and then he walked into it along with the cat.

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><p>"How strange," Euphemia said as she looked up at Suzaku from her bed in the Avalon's sickbay, "I can't see your face anymore."<p>

Suzaku tensed up in alarm as Euphemia brought her arm out from underneath the covers and struggled to reach up at Suzaku, who happily took her shaking hand in both of his as it threatened to fall back to the bed.

"Keep going… to school," the dying princess said as she knew that her time was short, "I had to stop before I… before I had the chance to finish."

"Euphie, you can still go yourself," Suzaku said, trying his hardest to lighten the mood, though tears had started to stream from his eyes down his cheeks, "I know, why don't we go to Ashford Academy together? The student council is so much fun… Euphie."

Euphemia just looked up at Suzaku and flashed him a kind warm-hearted smile as he struggled to maintain his composure.

"You have to do it for me… 'kay?" Euphemia said simply.

"Please, Euphie… no don't go!" Suzaku said as he frantically leaned towards her begging, losing the last vestiges of his composure, knowing that there was nothing he could do, but refusing to accept it.

"Suzaku," Euphemia said as her eyes were now almost completely closed, "I'm so happy… that we…"

Suzaku could only watch in horror as Euphemia's eyes completely closed over with a peaceful smile on her face and immediately afterwards, he heard the familiar high-pitched hum as the heart monitor displayed a straight line, indicating that Euphemia's heart had stopped beating. Afterwards, he completely lost his composure as the doctors rushed in and practically had to struggle to get him away from the body as he continued to cry out Euphemia's name, completely ignoring the others in the room, though he did struggle against them as they tried to move him.

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><p><strong>A few hours later after Suzaku's departure – Avalon sickbay<strong>

Euphemia's body still lay in the incubator as the doctors had not gotten round to moving it yet. Suzaku had left hours ago after someone who seemed to be a child no older than ten had appeared to him afterwards after he had calmed down and explained to him about the existence of Geass and how Zero had used his to force Euphemia into carrying out the massacre. Needless to say, Suzaku blamed Zero and had sworn to hunt down and kill the masked terrorist with his own bare hands as he discovered a fiery hatred that had always been brewing within him ever since he had met Zero. Now it burned more ferociously than it ever had before, leaving Suzaku feeling something he had never thought he would ever feel in his life and after calling Lelouch, telling him to tell everyone at Ashford Academy not to look up at the sky since he planned on killing Zero, which he knew would brand him a murderer.

Anyway, the doctors on board the Avalon had decided to wait till the ship had landed before dealing with the deceased princess and thus her body still remained in the room she had been brought to; still with that gentle peaceful smile adorning her face. The room itself was deserted with only a security camera in the far left-hand corner keeping watch in case someone tried something, though no one expected anything to happen; after all, who would want to steal a dead body? What purpose would it serve and even if someone did try to snatch Euphemia's body, how could they possibly get off the Avalon as it was currently in the air and anyone who attempted the theft of Euphemia's body would have no means of escape. The security camera was just merely a precaution due to subconscious paranoia.

However, in this instance, that paranoia would prove to be well-founded as a white dot suddenly appeared about six feet off the floor and then moved down towards the floor, forming a white line from where it first appeared and then the line expanded in all directions, creation a bright white semi-circular portal and Jaden Yuki emerged along with Pharaoh the cat.

"So this is where they brought her," Jaden said as he looked around in awe, taking in his surroundings in a rather carefree way.

"Jaden, try to remember that you're not here to admire the ship's interior," the voice that Jaden recognised as the voice from inside his head boomed from the portal, which was still there.

Jaden then frowned for a brief moment, but nonetheless nodded as his expression became serious.

"Okay, I gotcha," he said simply as he looked towards Euphemia's body.

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><p>Meanwhile, in the Avalon's surveillance room, the monitor displaying the image of Euphemia's room suddenly started to fade and flicker just as the portal had started to form before a mass of small black and white dots appeared on the screen, indicating static. However, the man on watch just shrugged his shoulders, assuming that the camera was just faulty as he continued to drink his cup of coffee.<p>

"Lousy camera," he said with an uncaring shrug, "Good thing this is Prince Schneizel's personal flagship, otherwise I'd have been worried."

He then decided to report the fault once the Avalon had landed so as to get it fixed. Like everyone else, he believed that Euphemia's body was perfectly safe. No one could possibly be foolish enough to try and steal it, could they? Just what purpose would a dead body serve anyway; other than to stink the surrounding area up with the foul odour of decomposition. He saw no reason to worry. After all, they were up in the air. Anyone who dared stow themselves away on board had nowhere else to go.

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><p>Back in the sickbay, Jaden pushed a button on the incubator, causing it to open up and then he just stared down at the dead princess with an unsure look on his face. He could not help but hesitate at what he had to do.<p>

"What's wrong, Jaden, don't tell me that you're getting cold feet?" a female voice taunted as a transparent figure appeared behind him.

Sensing the figure's presence, Jaden turned round to face her.

"Or perhaps you're fearful that I or Alexis would misunderstand the situation," the figure went on, "You forget that you and I are fused together, so you can't hide anything from me and I doubt that Alexis will ever find out about this and even if she does; I'm sure she has enough faith in you not to misunderstand the situation."

The figure itself was absolutely repulsive to look at with black, purple and brown skin and a pair of dragon like wings on its back with a single claw at the point at the height of each wing. The figure's face looked feminine with two lines running towards one another above the eyes and then running down the top of its nose. The figure's left eye was a deep aqua greenish blue while the right was a deep orange colour and at the centre of its forehead was a third red eye with its ends placed vertically. The figure's hair also had two different colours as a left/right split and each colour had its own unique hairstyle. The left side was a deep blue colour and the right side was a sandy whitish blonde colour. If that was not enough the figure also had greenish blue lips and its left chest area bulged forming a breast and though it seemed that the right chest area did the same; upon closer examination, it was just a protruding chest muscle similar to that of bodybuilders and the difference was highlighted with the black of the skin running over the breast as if covering it up and the chest muscle was a dark brownish purple colour. The figure's left arm seemed to be the arm of something that was not human from the elbow downwards whereas the right arm, though not human in colour; looked clearly feminine and the same with true for the left leg.

"It's not that, Yubel," Jaden said with a sigh, not in the least bit put off by the figure's presence, "I know that I can't hide anything from you and I'm not falling in love with her. It's just that I really wonder if this is the right thing to do, you know? I mean, here we are, about to revive a dead girl and take her away from everything she's ever known. I may not be that bright in the intelligence department, but even I can see that this may not work out for the best."

Yubel sighed as she turned to look at the portal as if seeking the voice that had spoken to Jaden for answers.

"I realise your concerns, Jaden," the voice boomed with just a hint of sympathy evident in its tone, "However, this is the best course of action. Think about it, if we revive her and leave her here, then aside from that Kururugi character and her sister, Cornelia, no one's going to accept her. After the atrocity that everyone; not just the Japanese believed she committed, she'd just be thrown to the wolves. Don't forget, the Britannians didn't know this would happen either. How many of them do you think will blame her for the uprisings that are currently taking place down below?"

Jaden groaned as he realised that the voice had a point.

"Not to mention that she had relinquished her ties with the Britannian Imperial Family," the voice went on, seeing that Jaden was not going to reply, "And even if she hadn't, I wouldn't rely on her father to bail her out. He'd probably just leave her to rot as he didn't agree with this Specially Administrated Zone to begin with. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if his son had unwittingly did him a favour in giving her that order. He probably had his OSI goons on standy; ready to sabotage the proceedings had Zero not foolishly boasted about his power. That's the sort of man Charles zi Britannia is."

Jaden's eyes widened in shock as he took this in and he could not help but feel sorry for Euphemia.

"If we left her here, the chances are, she'd be lynched to death," the voice concluded with absolute finality, "And I doubt Kururugi and Cornelia would be able to protect her forever. Her life in this world is over."

"But what about her memories?" a new voice came from a glowing golden orb that exited Pharaoh's mouth as the cat opened it to yawn, "What you say is all well and good, but if we revive her, she'll…"

"Already taken care of," the voice from the portal said, knowing what the orb was going to say, "If she learns of the massacre, it will no doubt devastate her to no end."

Jaden nodded as he remembered his time as the Supreme King and even to this day, he still had not completely come to terms with the misdeeds he committed, which was one of the reasons why after he had returned to Duel Academy he found that he just could not get the same fun out of duelling as he had done before.

"That is why to protect her, her memories of this world and this horrible massacre will be sealed," the voice went on, much to Jaden and Yubel's surprise.

"W-w-wait a-a-a-a minute here," Jaden stammered as he almost fell over, "Is that wise? I mean wouldn't that cause problems later?"

"I didn't say that it was a permanent solution," the voice argued with a hint of irritation in its tone, "Chances are, it won't be permanent. She'll get her memories back someday. By then, I'll trust she'll be able to handle them and it'll be easier for others to help her cope with it."

"Okay…" Jaden said as he turned back to look down at Euphemia's body.

To be honest, he still had misgivings about this whole thing. He had to admit that the voice did have a point in regards to how if she was revived, the people of her world would probably seek her out to kill her again, but he felt that it would be better to just leave her in her deceased state. He admitted that he was not that intelligent, but even he knew that interfering with the workings of life and death could have disastrous consequences in the long run as it was messing up the natural order of things. However, his instructions were to retrieve Euphemia's body so the person the mysterious voice belonged to could revive her and then he was to get her interested in the game of Duel Monsters and recommend her for a place at Duel Academy. He had no idea why and to be honest, he had little reason to trust whoever it was that was speaking to him, but something told him that he could trust this voice. It was a gut-feeling that this person's intentions were noble, though he did have a fear at the back of his mind that he was misplacing his trust, but he… at least for the most part, managed to ignore it.

"I would have preferred to have had her half-brother; the same one that did this to her be in her place," the voice spoke up, bringing Jaden out of his thoughts, "However, unfortunately, he's chosen to embrace his own darkness. I'll admit, his intentions are noble and just, but the fact he's willing to submit to the darkness and do whatever it takes; even stoop to the levels of his enemies to achieve his goals means that bringing him to your world would be a mistake."

"I submitted to my darkness before," Jaden pointed out as he reached down to pick Euphemia up as he slung his arms underneath her legs at the knees and her back behind her chest and picked her up; carrying her bridal style with the covers still over her to cover her modesty.

"Yes, Jaden, you did submit to the darkness once before," the orb that was hovering above Pharaoh said as it moved in front of him and then a transparent image of a man appeared, "But unlike this Lelouch person, you did not want to and only did so because of your dispirited state after the supposed deaths of some of your friends and the others then abandoning you. Unlike you, Lelouch has willingly plunged into the darkness and has no intentions of coming out. I'll admit it's for a good cause in the long run, but the fact remains; unlike you, he doesn't want to be saved."

The man before Jaden had long black hair with a strange formation shape at the front that had four bangs; two at either side of his face and the back was tied into a ponytail and seemed to point downwards at a diagonal angle and spirals inwards towards his head at the end. His eyes were indistinguishable as his eyelids were mere closed, giving his eyes a slit appearance. He wore black shoes, black trousers, a white long-sleeved shirt, a red tie round his neck and rectangular-framed glasses over his eyes. This was Lyman Banner, the former Headmaster of the Slifer Red dorm at Duel Academy and Jaden's travelling companion along with Pharaoh and Yubel.

"He speaks the truth," the voice said simply, "Zero does have good intentions and I'm sure in the end, he'll accomplish them, but he's too dark. The power of his Geass has already had an effect on him. Think, could you imagine what would happen if he gained the powers of the Shadow Realm?"

Jaden could not help but shudder at the thought of Zero wielding Shadow Magic, especially since some of the things it was capable of made death seem lenient by comparison. He knew that some people who fell victim to Shadow Games were not killed, but compared to what they were experiencing, they probably would have been better off if they had died. A power like that in the hands of someone like Zero would probably have disastrous consequences for anyone who was unlucky enough to cross his path.

"Okay then," he said with a defeated sigh as he looked down at the dead princess's peaceful angelic smile before looking back at the portal, "I get it. Bringing Zero to our world would be bad news."

"Not necessarily," the voice spoke in a positive tone before turning more serious with its next words, "But given his nature and beliefs of the ends justifying the means, there's a high possibility of him becoming corrupted no matter how good his intentions are. After all, they say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and that some of the worst atrocities are committed by those with the best of intentions in mind."

"But also, good can come from the worst of atrocities," Banner spoke up, "Though I have to say that I agree with you in this case."

He then disappeared, leaving behind the glowing orb that flew back into Pharaoh's mouth as the cat opened it; all too happy to let its master back into its stomach. Yubel also disappeared and Jaden turned towards the portal and started walking towards it, but unfortunately, the door to the room slid open and in walked the doctor and nurse that had seen to Euphemia when Suzaku had first brought her to the sickbay.

"What the…?" the doctor said as his eyes widened in absolute awe and disbelief as he saw the boy carrying the deceased princess's body walking towards what could only be described as a portal.

He just could not believe his eyes and would have just stood there in total shock had he not noticed that the boy carrying Euphemia's body looked Japanese and therefore in his eyes was a mere "Eleven". His expression turned into an angry glare as he stared at the "lowly Eleven scum" who, in his eyes dared stow away on board the ship and then steal the princess's dead body.

"Put her down, you disgusting Eleven son of a bitch," he said in pure outrage as he lunged at the boy with his arm raised and his fist ready to slam into his face.

Jaden just groaned in irritation as he stared at the doctor who was running towards him and for a brief moment, his eyes flashed a bright golden yellow before changing two separate colours; the same colours as Yubel's two main eyes. The left eye was the same aqua green blue colour as Yubel's left eye and the right eye was the same deep orange colour as Yubel's right eye. Needless to say, the change in eye colour caused the raging doctor to stop, but before he could comment on what had just happened, his eyes widened as he felt a strange sensation that seemed to wash over his body out of the blue before he dropped to the floor; not dead; just unconscious.

"Doctor!" the nurse gasped in alarm as her hands flew over her mouth as Jaden turned to stare at her.

"Sorry 'bout this, ma'am," Jaden said in apology, given the shocked woman a sympathetic look, "However, I can assure you that you'll both wake up in a few hours feeling just fine, though you won't remember seeing me here."

Before the nurse could think of how to reply, her eyes widened as she felt the same strange sensation as the doctor felt wash over her body; again, seemingly coming out of the blue and she dropped to the floor as well and then Jaden turned back towards the portal and walked through it before it disappeared leaving the two unconscious forms of the doctor and the nurse behind as if nothing had happened at all.

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><p>In the Avalon's surveillance room, the monitor linked to the security camera in Euphemia's room suddenly seemed to switch from the static back to normal as it displayed the interior of the room once again. The man on watch shrugged his shoulders at this, believing that whatever glitch had occurred managed to right itself and turned his head to face the monitor next to it, but suddenly, his head almost immediately snapped back towards the first monitor as he did a double-take and his eyes widened in pure shock and horror as, not only did he notice that Princess Euphemia's body was missing, but the doctor and nurse that had seen to her were both lying on the floor unmoving.<p>

"What the hell!" he said in alarm as he suddenly realised that the static on the screen earlier was not due to a technical fault, "Damn it, someone must have stowed away on board."

He then reached down to the right side of his waist and gasped his radio and then brought it up to his mouth to report what had just happened, sure that whoever stole Princess Euphemia's body was still on board as there was no way anyone could get off the ship while it was still in the air and even if they had their own mode of transportation, there was no way they could escape unnoticed. Unfortunately for him and everyone else involved, it would be the last they would ever see or hear from Euphemia for a long time.

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><p><strong>Preview of the next chapter<strong>

Euphemia is running through Domino City

"_Hey where am… who are you?" Euphemia's voice says in the background_

"_I'm Jaden __Yūki__," Jaden replies._

Euphemia walks up behind a nervous looking girl and says something.

"_All I seem to remember is that my name is Euphemia and that I'm sixteen-years-old," Euphemia says in confusion, "But other than that, my mind's a total blank."_

"_That's okay, we'll just have to give you a new family name," Jaden says with a laugh, "How about Felixton, Euphemia Felixton?"_

"_Felixton, why?" Euphemia asks._

"_Don' know, just sounds right," Jaden replies laughing with a hint of nervousness._

A smug looking girl in an Obelisk Blue blazer and miniskirt for girls sits between two other girls with her feet crossed and resting atop the boy sitting in front of her wearing a Slifer Red blazer.

"_But enough about that, it's time you went to Duel Academy to learn about Duel Monsters" Jaden says to Euphemia._

"_Duel Monsters," Euphemia says in a tone of acceptance, "I don't know why, but I feel that I want to." _

A boy looking remarkably identical to Suzaku wearing an Obelisk Blue boy's blazer stands watching the action from behind the crowds with a girl wearing the Obelisk Blue blazer and miniskirt standing beside him with a look of disinterest.

Dr Crowler is talking with Jaden and glances towards Euphemia who is waiting with the girl she just met.

"_Hold on, who is this woman?" Euphemia asks, surprised at seeing Dr Crowler._

"_Actually, Euphie, he's a guy," Jaden says._

"_What, that's a guy!" Euphemia says totally shocked._

"_Yep, though I suggest you address him as Doctor," Jaden goes on, "He's really sensitive about the issue of his gender, though I have to say that he's a really great duellist. He says he has a Ph.D. in duelling though I don't see what someone could do with that."_

Euphemia stands with a duel disk facing Dr Crowler with Jaden watching from behind the crowd.

"Game on!" both Euphemia and Dr Crowler yell at the same time as their duel start

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Crowler:** 4000

"_Okay, Jaden, I think I'm ready to try out for the academy," Euphemia says in a confident voice._

Crowler summons Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000), which rises out of the ground.

"_Okay, Euphie, as I always say, it's time to get your game on," Jaden says excitedly._

Euphemia plays a spell card causing her to sacrifice two monsters in order to ritual-summon a more powerful monster.

"_Next time: Duel Academy Try-outs!" Jaden says simply, "Gee I can hardly wait."_

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name **– Elemental Hero Neos

**Attribute **– Light

**Type** – Warrior

**Level **– 7

**ATK/DEF** – 2500/2000

**Info** – A new Elemental Hero has arrived from Neo-Space! When he initiates a Contact Fusion with a Neo-Spacian his unknown are unleashed

"_Hold it!" Jaden says in confusion, "What's the deal? There wasn't even a duel in this chapter."_

"_I know," the author (me) says, "But since this chapter was mostly about you taking Euphemia out of her world, I thought that the headliner of your deck should be brought up as this chapter's card."_

"_But I'm not even going to be duelling, am I?" Jaden says, clearly at a loss._

"_I don't know," the author says in an unsure tone, "I haven't decided yet. If not in this fic, then definitely in one of the sequels, you will be Euphie's final opponent just as Yugi was your final opponent in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX."_

"_Wow, that's so cool," Jaden says excitedly before sounding unsure, "It won't cut off at the best moment with the duel's conclusion remaining unseen like my duel with Yugi, will it?"_

"_No," the author says._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's notes <strong>– The first chapter of a new fic. I've had this idea buzzing about in my head for a while now and I spend the last couple of days researching Duel Monster cards on the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki site. As for my Euphemia of the Revelation fic, I have not abandoned it. In fact, I have a fair idea of how that will play out. I just thought I'd try something different and since there are no Code Geass/Yu-Gi-Oh! GX crossovers on the site yet, I thought that I'd try my luck in putting up the first one. I urge you all to give this fic a change as there will be a lot of OCs as Euphemia's friends and rivals, though the main GX cast will feature. Blair and Hassleberry are the most prominent two as at the end of GX they had not graduated and were in first and second year respectively, so they will most definitely be there and let's not forget Jaden, who will be monitoring Euphemia on behalf of the mysterious voice, which is not an OC by the way and appeared in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series near the end (kudos if you can guess who it is). As for the italics on the "Preview of Next Chapter" and "Card of the Chapter" segments, they represent voice-overs like in some anime shows scenes from the next episode and some of the characters are talking over those scenes. The none italics represent the scene that's being described. Also I'll put up my OCs in my profile as they are introduced.


	2. Duel Academy Tryouts!

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Duel Academy Try-outs!**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter summery <strong>– Euphemia's body has gone missing, leaving many confused; especially her former Knight of Honour, Suzaku Kururugi who has just captured Zero and is now on his way to the Britannian capital, Pendragon to use Lelouch as a bargaining chip to ascend to the Knights of the Round. Meanwhile, two months after Euphemia's revival, Euphemia is on the way to try-out for a place at the illustrious Duel Academy. However, in order to earn a place, she has to defeat Dr Vellian Crowler just like Jaden had to do, though this time Crowler's using his own personal deck at Jaden's request as he believes she's capable of handling it. Can Euphemia defeat Crowler and earn her place and meet Jaden's expectations? She's no female Jaden, that's for sure, but that won't stop her from giving it her all!

* * *

><p><strong>Code Geass world – Over Pacific Ocea, Airship Avalon en-route to Pendragon<strong>

Suzaku Kururugi lay on the bed of his temporary living quarters as he stared up at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head. He wore a stone-cold hard emotionless look on his face as he lay unmoving, going over what had just happened in the past few hours. He had done it. He had captured Zero who turned out to be his former best friend, Lelouch. However, despite this, he was not all that surprised. He had suspected that Zero and Lelouch were both the same person beforehand, though he had not acted due to part of him refusing to accept it and a lack of evidence and unfortunately his refusal to act had cost him the life of his beloved Euphemia, for which he would probably never forgive Lelouch for. It was after all Lelouch who had used his Geass on Euphie and made her kill all those innocent Japanese before killing her and spreading all those lies to the survivors just to simply start a war and because Euphie had become an obstacle in his way; an obstacle that needed to be removed.

He found himself angry at himself for not acting sooner. He should have known that Lelouch was Zero. After all, he knew Lelouch hated Britannia because of the assassination of his mother and the abandonment of his father. The Emperor had pretty much abandoned Lelouch and Nunnally after Lelouch confronted him over why he had not done anything to bring Marianne's killers to justice; sending them both to a foreign country, only to invade it half a year later. Lelouch had the perfect motivation, plus he was a master tactician able to pull off seemingly impossible feats; not to mention that he had recently disappeared for long periods of time and thinking back on it, Suzaku realised that all the times Lelouch had disappeared from Ashford Academy coincided with Zero's appearances and those disappearances had started round about the same time as Zero's debut. Suzaku remembered hearing about it from Nunnally; on the night of his court martial for his supposed role in Prince Clovis's murder, he remembered Nunnally telling him that Lelouch had not been home and had been off in the settlement somewhere. He also remembered Nunnally telling him of Lelouch's frequent absences and how it was not like him and also how Lelouch had told him to think of Euphie during their last phone call before he discovered Zero's identity. He had been too angry to think about it then, but thinking back on it now, he realised that Lelouch had unwittingly let the cat out of the bag. How did he know that Suzaku was angry over Euphie's fate; in fact, how did he know that something had happened to Euphie in the first place? He had been too blinded by his rage to have caught on back then.

"I guess I understand why you hate Britannia, but still…" the young Japanese boy thought as his eyes narrowed, sending a glare up at the ceiling, "That's no justification for what you did."

He found his eyes clenching shut as he felt his anger for Lelouch surface as he remembered witnessing Euphie's last moments and how he had failed her as her knight. True, he did understand why Lelouch had chosen his path, but it was no justification for what he did. Lelouch had obviously let himself become consumed in his own hatred and had decided that he was going to take his revenge no matter what the consequences were or who got in his way. Suzaku felt the same way. He remembered how he had chased after Zero, killing everyone who got in his way; not caring who they were. Heck, even Nunnally's fate done not matter to him at present. He remembered Lelouch had left the battlefield in search of Nunnally who had been kidnapped, causing the Black Rebellion to collapse with the Britannians emerging victorious. Anyway, Suzaku did not care for any of that. To him, Nunnally and the fall of his countrymen were nothing more than collateral damage. He had told Lelouch that he would take care of Nunnally, but in truth, he just did not care if she was alive or dead. If she was alive, he would take care of her like he had said, but if she was dead… well, that was just too damn bad. Even though he knew that it was wrong to feel that way, he was just too full of anger and hate to care and he could not help but feel rotten at that. It disgusted him that he was probably leaving his former friend's sister to who knew what fate; especially since she was innocent and had nothing to do with her brother's campaign, but his anger over losing Euphemia overrode that part of him and in a way, another, more twisted part of him saw it as an eye for an eye.

"You took the person closest to my heart, so it's only fair that you lose the person closest to yours," he thought rather snidely as the more twisted side of him surfaced, though his facial expression did not change.

Speaking of Euphemia, he had been rather shocked and surprised to learn that her body had gone missing. After he returned with the incapacitated Lelouch and after Lelouch had been carted off to the brig, he had been informed that someone had apparently stolen Euphie's body and had vanished without a trace. The security camera in her room had apparently experienced some technical fault and after the fault had cleared, Euphemia's body had vanished and the doctor and nurse that had seen to her were unconscious on the floor. However what was strange about it was that neither the doctor nor the nurse had any sort of physical mark on their bodies and what was even more bizarre was that when they both came round a few hours later, neither of them had any memory of what happened to them. If that was not enough, the body-snatcher had disappeared as well. The Avalon's security team had scoured the ship five times over, looking in every nook and cranny, but neither Euphemia nor the person that took her body were anywhere to be found and there were no reports of any unidentified aircraft leaving the ship either. Whoever it was that had taken Euphemia's body seemed to have vanished without a trace.

"Could it have been Geass?" Suzaku thought to himself before shaking his head.

No, it could not have been Geass, he decided. He remembered the child, V.V. explaining to him that each and every single Geass was different from person to person. He explained that that Chinese man who had kidnapped Nunnally and who apparently seemed to know the truth about his father and how he died had had a Geass that enabled him to read people's minds, though how he had come to learn about that incident, he did not know and that Geass was based on affecting the mind; not the physical world. He also blamed Geass for Lelouch's corruption. It was obvious to him that Lelouch only started his campaign as Zero because he received that accursed power. Because of it, Lelouch had fallen to corruption and had become the uncaring monster who was willing to sacrifice the life of his own half-sister, whom he loved dearly in his quest for vengeance. Suzaku remembered Lelouch once telling him how Euphie was the person he cared most about; second only to Nunnally and yet, he had used and discarded her like a used rag with no remorse whatever once her usefulness had expired.

Anyway, he wondered if Lelouch had anything to do with Euphie's body's disappearance, but immediately dismissed the idea. Lelouch had been nowhere near the Avalon as he had been too busy chasing after whoever had kidnapped Nunnally and even if he had ordered some of the Black Knights to retrieve Euphie's body, the very idea that they could sneak on board the Prime Minister of Britannia's personal flagship while it was airborne, steal Euphemia's body and then make their getaway completely unnoticed was just impossible. If there had been any incoming aircraft; even a Knightmare Frame equipped with a Float System, the Avalon's radar would have picked them up and any escape attempt from the airborne ship would no doubt have resulted in death. Even if the body-snatcher had stolen an aircraft from the Avalon's hangers, there was no way they could have gotten away without being noticed. It was a complete mystery to everyone on board.

Suzaku had questioned the nurse and doctor, but they were adamant that they could not remember what happened. They last thing they remembered was the door to Euphemia's room opening and then they both walked inside and then the next thing they remembered was waking up in the sickbay. Suzaku knew they were both telling the truth, though due to his anger and frustration over the fact that he seen Euphemia die only hours earlier, he had decided to beat the doctor up anyway just to let out his pent-up fury over the fact that Euphemia's body had been stolen. Even then, the doctor maintained that he knew nothing and though Suzaku believed him, he continued to beat him anyway in an attempt to feel better. He just had to unleash his rage on someone and he did not care who. The doctor had just been unfortunate enough to be in his sights.

"Why?" the young Japanese boy asked himself, "What could anyone possibly want with a dead body?"

He then let out a frustrated sigh as he clasped his hands from the back of his head and sat up. This was deeply upsetting for him. The woman he loved had died not that long ago and now before he could even begin to come to terms with it, her body ends up disappearing off the face of the Earth without a trace, plus the fact that the person who killed her had been someone he had considered his best friend only added to his mounting stress. This was just too much. Just what could anyone want with a dead body? He found it rather pointless for anyone to steal a body.

However if Suzaku had looked towards the darkness of the open closet, he would have noticed what could only be described as a black mist hovering a few feet above the floor and within this black mist, a pair of bright blue glowing eyes were evilly peering out at him as if studying him. However, he was unfortunately too wrapped up in his own emotions to notice and when he did finally look in the direction of the closet; the black mist had vanished along with the two glowing eyes within.

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Domino City, two months later<strong>

Euphemia was currently running towards the venue for the Duel Academy Entrance Exams, which was a huge white dome atop a hill that led to a cliff overlooking the city. Euphemia was not running late or anything, it was just that she wanted to get her exam over and done with as soon as possible. She could not help but remember waking up and finding a boy with strangely coloured hair staring down at her with a look of concern on his face. The boy had introduced himself as Jaden Yūki and had taken her to a game shop in Domino where a man with even stranger coloured hair had introduced himself as Yūgi Mutō and gotten her interested in a card game called Duel Monsters, which had become rather popular over the last decade or so. Duel Monsters had now become so popular that people were using the game as a means of expressing themselves and resolving disputes, rather than resort to physical violence. Wagers were common in the duelling world and just about anyone who was anyone was now a duellist from those from rundown neighbourhoods to wealthy noblemen, politicians… heck even royalty. Sure not everyone was a duellist, but Duel Monsters was now integrated into the worldwide society and everyone recognised its status. However, like most things, Duel Monsters also had a dark side. Criminals found that Duel Monsters made a highly profitable black market in the selling of rare and counterfeit cards and there were cards so rare that some people were willing to kill just to get their hands on those cards. One example was a group from ten years ago called the Rare Hunters who challenged people to duels with using what was now known as an ante rule in which both players would wager their rarest card and once they won, they would kill their opponents and then they would sell the stolen cards on the Black Market while keeping the most powerful cards for themselves, though they had disbanded after the Battle City Tournament and their leader, a man called Marik Ishtar had somehow been given a pardon, though many people suspected that his sister had something to do with that as she was a very influential figure in politics and even had ties with the Egyptian Government.

Anyway, Euphemia found herself agreeing to this, feeling that she wanted to, though she did not known why. She had managed to build herself a deck and Jaden and Yūgi both coached her on the rules and arranged duels against various individuals using the holographic technology that Kaiba Corp developed. When it came to duelling, Euphemia had proven herself to be a natural, though she lost a few duels. In fact, some of the opponents that she had lost to had been chosen by Yūgi and Jaden because they knew she would lose in order to give her a lesson in humility and show her that no matter how good she was, there were always those who were better than her. Some of her opponents who defeated her had been pretty mean and brutal as they verbally beat her down and boasted about their superiority as if they were the greatest thing that had ever lived. This was also done deliberately to teach her that some people believed that they were the greatest duellist alive and that there were those who loved to humiliate and verbally abuse the defeated for no other reason other than to inflate their already overinflated egos. Needless to say, those who did so apologised afterwards as it was all arranged by Jaden and Yūgi and the lesson had gotten through and Euphemia could now say that she was prepared.

"I still can't believe they actually told those guys to act like that," she thought as she continued to run, still not that pleased that it had all been staged, though her understanding as to why it was staged had prevented her from becoming open with Jaden and Yūgi over that issue, "Though I still can't help but wonder just who I really am."

That was the one thing she could not help but be curious about. The first thing she remembered was waking up and finding Jaden looking over her. However, aside from knowing that her name was Euphemia and that she was sixteen-years-old, she had no clue who she was. Waking up was the first thing she remembered and she remembered it as if it had been her first memory. Everything that had happened before then; including why she had been in a state of unconsciousness beforehand was all a blank to her. Everything was strange and unfamiliar to her and she had to admit that it did frighten her and though Jaden maintained that he did not know how she had come to be in that state and that he just found her like that, she knew that he was lying, though she reasoned that he had his reasons as to why he was lying to her, so she decided to play along, deciding that Jaden would tell her when he was ready. Anyway, he had come up with the idea of giving her a false family name and now, she was known as Euphemia Felixton and for some reason, the name seemed to fit, though she knew that her old family name was different. Jaden had suggested it to her and he also felt that it was right for her. Jaden had also recommended that she try out for a place in Duel Academy, though she did not know why. As far as her skills as a duellist went, she was fairly decent, but she did not see herself as anything special. She was just an average-skilled duellist as far as she was concerned, though she decided that she was going to give it her all in the entrance exam, which consisted of a duel against an academy proctor and the object of the duel was to win the duel to earn your place, though Euphemia did not expect to win, but she would try her best.

Another thing she had noticed was that she did not look Japanese and she was currently in Japan. In fact, Domino itself was not a Japanese word and many of the residents of the city did not have Japanese names. Some only had Japanese family names where as others had complete names that were not Japanese. However, this had been due to American and Western integration after World War II. After World War II, the Americans helped the Japanese get back on their feet. However, an earthquake had struck the city of Domino, which back then had been called Umiharu (Ocean Spring) due to the surrounding greenery and proximity to the sea and when the buildings collapsed, they caused a domino effect and when the city was rebuilt, it was renamed Domino because of that domino effect. Afterwards many Americans and others from other Western countries had flocked to Domino, finding it a popular holiday destination and quite a few decided to stay permanently and integrated with the local Japanese community and before long, many people within the community had Western names. Jaden was one example of this. He was born to a Japanese father and an American mother; both his parents having met during a business trip in Tokyo; both working for big companies and decided to settle down in Domino.

That had what Euphemia had been told and Jaden told her that if anyone asked about her nationality, she was to just say that she was American. Duel Academy had many students of different nationalities, so she doubted anyone would ask. Duel Academy had been founded more than ten years ago after Seto Kaiba, the President and CEO of Kaiba Corp purchased an island in the South Seas and had the academy build to help duellists perfect their skills and was said to have named the three main dormitories personally. The dormitories were named after the three Egyptian God Cards based on who had which card during the Battle City Tournament. Since Kaiba himself had Obelisk the Tormentor, Obelisk Blue was for the highest ranking students, who had really high grades or had connections. Ra Yellow was for fairly decent students who did well, but lacked the necessary grades to qualify for Obelisk Blue. Slifer Red was for students who did poorly on their exams and was assigned as the lowest ranking dormitory out of Kaiba's bitterness towards the King of Games, Yūgi since Yūgi had beaten him time and again and Kaiba believed that he should be the number one duellist in the world and just could not stomach knowing that there was someone who was better than he was.

"Wait, Euphie!" a voice suddenly called out, bringing her out of her thoughts and back to reality, causing her to stop and turn round to see Jaden running towards her waving two cards in his hand.

"Jaden, what's wrong?" she asked as she brought her body round fully to face him.

Jaden stopped running as he placed his hands on his knees and bent over, panting for breath.

"What's… huff… your… wheeze… rush?" he panted as he looked up at the pinkette questioningly, "You've got… puff… plenty of… huff… time."

"Well I really want this over and done with as soon as possible," Euphemia replied simply, "Anyway what is it that you wanted?"

"Wow, Euphie, hold the phone, what do you mean, over and done with as soon as possible?" Jaden asked feeling a bit curious and surprised at the former princess's remark.

"I don't see why you think so highly of me," Euphemia replied with a sigh, "I think you're overestimating my duelling skills. I'm grateful for what you and Yūgi have done for me, but why recommend me to one of the most illustrious duelling schools in the world? My skills are great, I won't deny that, but I'm not the next Duel Monsters Champion in the Making material."

"I never said that you were," Jaden replied with a shrug, "However, I just know that you're ready for the Academy. I wouldn't have recommended you if I didn't think you were ready."

Euphemia sighed as she hesitantly nodded.

"However, despite that, I'm just going to give it my all and we'll see what happens," she said as she gave Jaden a stern look before continuing, "And I want your assurance that my duel will be a fair one. I don't want to face a proctor with a deck that can be easily beaten and I don't want the proctor to lose on purpose either."

"Don't worry about that," Jaden said, shaking his head, "I guarantee that your duel won't be rigged in your favour."

He then glanced down at the two cards he was holding in his right hand and then held it out to Euphemia.

"By the way, before I forget, here," he said as Euphemia just stared at the two cards in confusion, "Yūgi says that he feels that those two cards belong to you and that they'll give you luck."

Euphemia then held out her hand and slowly took the two cards and then took a look at them.

"Watapon and Horned Kuriboh," she said as she noticed that the second card was a Kuriboh with a pair of small green horns sticking out the sides of its head, curving upwards at a ninety-degree angle against a dark blue background, "Okay, when this card is in the graveyard, return this card to your deck and reshuffle. You take no battle damage from your opponent's monsters this turn."

"Pretty neat, huh?" Jaden said excitedly after Euphemia finished reading the card's text, "I know that those monsters aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, but who knows, they may come in handy."

Euphemia nodded as she pulled out her deck from her deck-holder that was attached to a black belt round her waist on her right side and added the two cards before shuffling the deck and placing it back in the deck-holder.

"Heck, even Watapon may come in handy someday," Jaden went on, "I know Horned Kuriboh's effect will help you and Watapon may not seem much use, but who knows? You may find one."

"In fact, I know you'll find one," he added in his thoughts, "I already know that he could play a role in a possible victory in which you combine him with another card you have in your deck along with a monster of another attribute against a certain dragon-type monster, given the correct circumstances."

"Thanks, I owe you and Yūgi a lot," the pinkette said as she flashed a kind and caring smile that reminded Jaden of Euphemia's former identity before she turned and walked off leaving Jaden shocked at how much like her former self she had seemed and also glad that she had decided to walk the rest of the way.

"You want a real duel for your entrance exam, I'll give you one," he thought with a nod, "I know just the guy and the deck to do it."

He could not help but feel a bit uneasy about all this. He still had his doubts on whether or not what he was doing was best for Euphie. After all, she had been revived after she had ordered a massacre against her world's Japanese, albeit she had not acted of her own freewill and her half-brother had only been joking with her and she only carried out the massacre because Lelouch had not realised that his Geass had flared to life on its own, though the pain in his left eye beforehand should have been a warning, but after the pain had subsided, he had mistakenly believed that whatever it was had passed. Anyway, the thing was, Euphemia's memories had been sealed and Jaden was fearful that she would get them back prematurely. Of course, he knew that memories could not be destroyed; only supressed. A person suffering from amnesia did not really lose their memories. The things they don't remember were just being suppressed. However, Euphemia's memories were being forcibly suppressed and Jaden had learned from the mysterious voice that had instructed him to retrieve Euphemia that the magic suppressing her memories was not permanent and would weaken over time and that it was up to him to revitalise it every time it weakened to a level in which Euphemia started to remember… at least until Euphemia's mind had strengthened to the point where it could shatter the magical memory seal on its own.

"Easier said than done," he thought, shaking his head.

He knew that Euphemia knew that he had lied to her when he had said that he had found her and was only playing along since she seemed to understand that he had his reasons for keeping her in the dark and it worried him. It meant that part of Euphemia did not trust him and even more, Euphemia herself was not even aware of it. He had gotten to know her over the past two months… heck, even before then when he had observed her before the Specially Administered Zone of Japan had even entered her head as an idea and this Euphemia was pretty much like the Euphemia before that horrible massacre; a gently kind and caring individual who treated everyone with respect and who was kind to everyone regardless of who they were. Heck, her outfit was even similar to the outfit she wore while she was being casual. Her outfit consisted of red shoes, long orange trousers that were made for a girl as opposed to the long skirt she had before and a green and white top with the green running from her waist to just below her breasts and the white running over her breasts, over her shoulders and down the sleeves. Jaden had developed quite the friendship with Euphemia and he hated to see that end.

"Oh man, this is hard," he thought, shaking his head and clenching his eyes shut, "If it were up to me, I'd have left her dead. It's not natural bringing someone back from the dead and besides, it may be more harmful to her in the long run."

That much was true. If Euphemia's memories returned, he shuddered to think what would happen and he feared that it may happen at a rather inopportune time and he knew that if she learned of the massacre she had carried out while under the influence of her half-brother's Geass, it would undoubtedly devastate her to no end and cause her to become suicidal. Jaden remembered after he had been saved from the Supreme King how devastated he had felt and when Guardian Baou, the only one of his former lackeys to survive the siege of the Supreme King's lair challenged him, he remembered that he had been quite prepared to let Baou finish him and he could not help but picture Euphemia in a similar situation in which she was engaged in a duel where losing meant losing more than just the duel with her memories restored and she was prepared to let her opponent win, believing that in losing she would receive what she believed she deserved.

"No," he said aloud with a determined look on his face, "I won't let that happen."

He vowed that he would watch over her no matter what. He knew that her memories would return to her someday, the mysterious voice had said so. Nothing lasted forever. However, Jaden decided that he would be there to help her when her memories eventually returned. He also hoped that she would not blame him for it and that any friends she made while at Duel Academy would be there for her as well. The mysterious voice had also warned that her suppressed memories may manifest as dreams and flashbacks or she may briefly remember something before forgetting it. It was nothing to be alarmed about as that was only natural, but Jaden would be there to keep an eye on her, just in case.

"Right, now, to business," he said as he walked into an alleyway and then, mysteriously vanished into thin air.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the venue of the Duel Academy Entrance Exams, which was known as the Kaiba Dome, many duels were taking place as the latest batch of applicants fought to earn their places at the illustrious school. There were four duelling fields and each one had a duel in process and was under the watchful eyes of Dr Vellian Crowler, the Department Chair of Techniques at the academy as well as the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue Dormitory and Vice-Chancellor. Also overseeing the exams were some of the Duel Academy's staff who watched each duel and took notes on how well or how poorly each applicant was doing. Students who had already passed and registered and also had their uniforms handed to them also stayed to watch, basically scoping the possible competition they would have to face. Some of the second and third-year students were also there for the same reason, wanting to see how well the freshmen duelled and hoping to challenge them later on.<p>

"Attention, attention!" a recorded monotone voice boomed from speakers that were situated from the ceiling, "Will all applicants who passed please make their way to registration and for those of you who failed, better luck next year."

* * *

><p>Dr Crowler sat with his arms folded as he oversaw the duels currently taking place with a smile on his face; not a smug looking smile, but a kind and warming smile as he listened to the recorded announcement.<p>

"Yes, better luck next year," he thought as he watched some of the exam proctors comfort a few applicants who had lost to the side of the duelling fields, "Losing provides the motivation to try harder."

Three years ago, he would have just mockingly dismissed them as not being good enough. Back then, he had been a rather stuck-up elitist jerk who believed that only the elite deserved to enter Duel Academy and constantly looked down on those who did not make it into the Obelisk Blue Dorm, though it was mostly those in Slifer Red rather than Ra Yellow. He had this delusional mind-set that Obelisks were the best and everyone else was beneath his notice and if he had had his way, Duel Academy would have been a place where only the best duellists attended. Heck he had even believed that Duel Academy should rightfully belong to him. However, all that changed when Jaden Yūki arrived. He had arrived late and seeing how Jaden barely passed the written part of the entrance exam, Crowler had a very low opinion of him and had intended to send him home since he had arrived late and the exams were just about finished, but a phone call from Chancellor Sheppard convinced him to reconsider, though he decided to duel Jaden himself using his own personal deck instead of one of the exam decks so he could fail Jaden and he believed that using his own deck had pretty much guaranteed a win, but Jaden had stunned him and everyone present as he went on to defeat him and his Ancient Gear Golem, his best card at the time.

Needless to say, Crowler felt rather humiliated. He had lost to someone he saw as inferior. Not only did the person he lost to barely passed the written part of the test, but was also late; add to that that Crowler had used his own deck instead of an exam deck, plus Jaden's carefree attitude only served to infuriate him even further, so in an attempt to gain his revenge, he resorted to several underhanded tactics to try and get Jaden expelled for the majority of the first half of that year, but each plan failed and Jaden somehow managed to win and defeat a few Obelisk Blue students, which only added fuel to the fire. Jaden was a Slifer Red and in Crowler's mind, he was tarnishing the status quo of the school. Crowler had been one of those people who had tried to twist the facts to fit his own warped view of the world rather than just altering his beliefs to fit the facts and it rather infuriated him each time Jaden triumphed as he believed that it made him look bad and the fact that Jaden failed to catch on and did not return his animosity made it worse.

Of course, during the second half of that year, the Shadow Riders struck and Crowler had been chosen to protect one of the seven Spirit Keys. However, he unfortunately lost his Spirit Key and his soul to a vampire called Camula, only to be rescued by none other than Jaden and after that, Crowler seriously started to re-evaluate his outlook on life as he started to accept that the colour of a student's coat did not necessarily reflect their skills as a duellist, though if anyone asked him, he would denied it in a heartbeat as his pride over his reputation would not let him become open over it. The next year, he had been temporarily made Chancellor while Sheppard left on a retreat back to his dojo, though he had proven to be a coward who let Vice-Chancellor Jean-Louis Bonaparte walk all over him and Bonaparte had wanted to tear down the Slifer Red Dorm since he believed that it was a stain on the school's reputation and though Crowler seemingly agreed with him, he secretly hoped that the Slifer Red students would prevent Bonaparte from enacting his plan. Heck he even cheered Jaden on in his rematch with Aster Phoenix when Jaden's loss would have meant the destruction of the Slifer Red Dorm and eventually gathered the courage to stand up to Bonaparte and stopped his plans himself, though he denied that he did it for the Slifer Red students. As for Jaden, by then he had grown to tolerate and even respect him, probably due to the fact that he had saved him from Camula and come the second half of Jaden's third year, he became upset that Jaden's group; Jaden included were leaving and so reverted to his old snobbish self, making the students do pointless assignments and cancelling classes in the hopes that he would sabotage their grades, preventing them from graduating, but it led to the students chasing after him and Jaden challenging him to a rematch for the students' right to graduate and though Crowler had done significantly better against Jaden than in their first match, Jaden still won, though in a twist of irony, Jaden ended to the match with Flame Wingman attacking his Ancient Gear Golem with the Skyscraper field spell enhancing Flame Wingman's power and with Flame Wingman's special ability, Crowler lost, though this time, he accepted his loss and realised what Jaden had been trying to tell him; that even though the students would be gone, they would always remain in his heart.

"I just wonder what this year will have to offer," he thought as he remembered Jaden, the "Slifer Slacker" who blew Duel Academy's colour system out of the water by proving that poor grades did not reflect one's duelling skills.

He could now admit that he would miss Jaden despite trying to get him expelled when he first arrived, though he would not admit it openly due to his pride. He just put on an attitude of indifference whenever the subject of Jaden's graduation came up. His respect for Jaden would not allow him to lie and claim that he was glad he was gone and yet, his pride would not allow him to admit that he was missing him.

"I wonder where that girl he recommended is," he thought as he knew that Jaden had recommended that a girl be allowed to try out and he looked around studying all the girls present, seeing if any stood out.

* * *

><p>Down in the near-right duelling field, a Baby Dragon (1200700) appeared, jumping out of a life-sized holographic version of its card on the proctor's side of the field and attacked the applicant's opposing Happy Lover (800/500) by spitting a fireball at it and caused it to shatter into holographic triangles that dispersed in all directions before disappearing

The owner of the Happy Lover groaned as she witnessed her monster being destroyed.

**Applicant**: 200 – **Proctor**: 1400

The applicant herself looked to be in her mid-teens with shoulder-length dark brown hair and sparkling emerald green eyes. She wore a pair of blue and white sneakers, dark green shorts that went down to just above her knees, a black belt that her deck-holder was attached to at her left hand side round her waist and a white V-neck short-sleeved shirt with blue stripes running diagonally downwards from right to left and light blue stripes of a slightly darker shade running diagonally downwards from left to right, creating a diamond effect with the white on the shirt. The shirt also had three white buttons at the V-neck, two that were in place and the collar folded outwards and the top pointing downwards.

"Not again," the girl thought as she looked up at the crowd who were seated in seats that circled the duelling fields and went upwards in an angled slope, "Why is it that I always tense up whenever I'm duelling with huge crowds watching me. I feel so exposed with all those people watching me; judging me."

She then noticed behind the last row of seats to her left with a railing separating the floor from the slope where the seats were a boy with a slightly dark skin tone, messy brown hair and green eyes leaning with his arms on the railing looking down on the duelling fields in interest. He wore an Obelisk Blue blazer that was all dark blue with white outlining at the collar and the band near the top as well as two lines at the side of the centre of the chest area that both then ran at diagonal angles and met up at the edges of the blazer, coming to a point just above the stomach area. The boy also wore white boots and black and white trousers with the inner part white and the outer part black and a yellow stripe running down the centre on each legging, separating the two colours.

However, the boy was not what had caught the girl's attention. Standing next to the boy with her arms folded and a cold, stern, hard emotionless look on her face was a girl with long black hair and dark green eyes that were every bit as cold as her expression was a girl in an Obelisk Blue uniform who seemed to be staring down at her specifically. However, unlike the boy, her Blazer was mostly white without sleeves and a light blue colour highlighted the white areas of the boy's blazer with an extra thick light blue area circles the waist area at the bottom. The only dark blue part was the band round the shoulders. The girl also wore a short shirt that was the same dark blue colour as the blazer's shoulder band and blue boots that went up to a few inches above her ankles and were the same matching blue colour.

"Onē-sama," the female applicant thought with a cringe as she saw emotionless expression of her big sister bear down on her.

* * *

><p>A bit later in the near-left duelling field, another duel was happening. The applicant was a boy with spiky grey hair that seemed to have been gelled to form perfect spikes and light brown eyes. He wore a pair of leather black shoes, blue jeans with a black band round his right leg at was attached to his deck-holder, a dark blue t-shirt with a picture of Spider-Man and the words, "Spider-Man" in yellow lettering with a red outline that seemed to curve downwards and a leather black jacket that was open.<p>

"Okay applicant," the proctor said in a mocking tone, "Here's the deal, you have two monsters with over two thousand defence points staring you down and your monsters aren't strong enough to take them down, so if I were you, I'd give up."

**Applicant**: 3800 – **Proctor**: 1200

The proctor already had a Millennium Shield (0/3000) and a Mystical Elf (800/2000) on the field and the applicant had two monsters that looked like the Red and Black Rangers from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Ranger Red (1500/1400) and Ranger Black (1300/1200).

"The J-Man doesn't quit," the applicant said as he reached into his jacket with his right hand since his left was holding the cards in his "hand" and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and with a few short movements, opened them up then placed them over his eyes., "This duel is over and I've already won because when I have two monsters with Ranger in their names out on the field, then I can have one of them bypass your monsters and attack you directly. So take it away Ranger Red. Make the J-Man proud."

Ranger Red suddenly started running towards Ranger Black who then used his hands as a platform to spring his companion into the air when Ranger red placed his foot on his waiting hands and then Ranger Red curled into a ball and spun while going over the opposing monster and then let out a vicious spin kick after he manoeuvred himself out of the ball shape that struck the proctor in the chest.

The proctor groaned despite it just being a hologram, feeling a phantom sensation of pain as if it had been real and even stumbled back a few feet.

**Applicant (winner)**: 3800 – **Proctor**: 0

"Congratulations applicant," the proctor said after recovering from the last attack as the holograms vanished as the duel disks shut down, "Welcome to the Academy."

"The J-Man thinks it's an honour," the applicant who called himself, J-Man said as he turned and made his way off the field and up into the crowd.

* * *

><p>Sitting at the centre of second-last row of seats nearest the entrance with a view of the duelling field at the duellists' sides were three girls wearing Obelisk Blue uniforms like the female applicant's sister. The one on the left had curly orange hair and rather dark blue eyes and in addition to her uniform, she also wore a pair of silver earrings with a bright green orb hanging from each one. The girl on the right had rather short dark brown hair and bright hazel-coloured eyes and in addition to her uniform, she wore a variety of golden and silver bracelets; each one different in thickness on her right arm as well as a white-strapped watch on her left wrist with a sparkling gold frame round the clock. However, the girl who was sitting between them, who rested her arms on the tops of the back of the seats next to her and had her legs crossed with her feet rested atop a boy sitting in the seat in front of her wearing a Slifer Red blazer had long teal coloured hair and rather cruel greyish blue eyes as she had a sadistic grin on her face after watching "J-Man's" duel.<p>

"Wow that guy's pretty good, wouldn't you say, Stella?" the girl on the left said as she looked as the girl beside her.

"For an idiot who likes to address himself in the third person, he sure is great," the girl on the left said as she also looked at the girl in between her and her other friend, "I mean, he only lost two hundred life points and played that proctor for an amateur."

"Big deal," the girl in the middle, Stella spoke up with a rather snide scoff, "I'm not impressed. I could've won that duel in a single turn without losing any life points."

"But, Stella, I hear he also scored pretty high on the written test," the girl on the right said as if in protest, "He could very well make it into Obelisk Blue."

"Doubtful," Stella scoffed in an uncaring manner, "Unlike him, we went to Duel Monsters Prep School for the past three years. We're ready for anything the academy has to throw at us. The only way to get ahead in life is to crush the hopes and dreams of anyone to stands in your way and ruin them beyond recovery. I plan on spreading that philosophy throughout the academy; the Stella Harrington Philosophy."

Stella could only grin as she imagined all the duellists she was going to ruin. She utterly enjoyed duelling and not just beating her opponents; she enjoyed taunting them and verbally kicking them while they were down. She enjoyed tearing them apart psychologically and went out of her way to make sure her opponents were too scared to duel again and also traumatise them beyond any hope of a full recovery and the fact that none of her opponents deserved it only seemed to heighten her sadistic pleasure even further.

"After all, the world's nothing more than a cold heartless place where every single person alive is at war with everyone else in the world," she thought a trace of bitterness manifested on her face as she screwed her eyes, glaring forwards with a scowl, "Friendship doesn't exist. You only have temporary truces, alliances and ceasefires with others, but when their usefulness is over, you crush them before they can do the same to you."

* * *

><p>The female applicant who had noticed her sister glaring down at her with an emotionless look rubbed the side of her hand along her forehead as she wiped her brow, breathing a sigh of relief since she somehow managed to win her duel and defeat her duelling proctor. Currently, she was standing behind the crowd after just witnessing the "J-Man's" victory.<p>

"Wow, that guy won with nearly all his life points," she heard a girl say as she turned and saw a pink-haired, blue-eyed girl walk up beside her.

"Yeah, that's James Jonah Jamison or as he likes to be called, the J-Man," the applicant said as she studied the girl beside her, "I hear he scored fairly high on the written test and is just narrowly lacking the grades to get into the top dorm."

"Really, I wouldn't say I did all that well on the written test, but I didn't do badly either," the pinkette said as she flashed the other girl a smile, "In fact, I think I scored a seventy-five to seventy-six percent on the written test. My name's Euphemia, Euphemia Felixton, but you can call me Euphie if you want."

"Wow, I barely passed my written test," the girl said, sounding rather shy and nervous, "Name's Yumi by the way; Yumi Fujiharu or Fujiharu Yumi if you want to be Japanese about it and I barely managed to make it here. I only won my duel by a massive fluke."

"So you're in," Euphemia said as she placed a hand on Yumi's shoulder and smiled at her, "Congratulations. Hopefully I'll be in to if I win my duel."

Yumi looked a bit surprised at Euphemia's action, clearly not expecting it and her cheeks could not help but flush a light shade of red in embarrassment. It was clearly the first time someone had congratulated her for anything and she did not know how to feel. On one hand, she felt happy that someone had acknowledged her dispute telling that person that her victory was only a fluke and this Euphemia girl seemed quite sincere as she seemed to give off this aura of calm gentleness with that kind and caring smile of hers. There was something about this girl that Yumi found calming and she felt as if she could just let go of her troubles and just be herself without fear of anyone ridiculing her.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Dr Crowler continued to search for the girl that Jaden had recommended try-out for the academy and unfortunately, he was having no such luck. He had expected this girl to stand out in some way, but unfortunately, he found no one who stood out in the crowd.<p>

"Hey, Dr C, long time no see," a familiar voice came from behind him, causing him to turn his head round to look over his shoulder and saw Jaden standing behind the staff area where the members of staff watched the duels.

"Oh it's you," Crowler said with a tone of indifference as he turned his head back to face his front and stood up before turning round to face Jaden, "I take it that you're here to see that girl you recommended duel."

"Of course, did you think I'd miss seeing Euphie's duel?" the former Slifer asked in an excited tone, clearly not at all put off by Crowler's tone of indifference and it reminded him of the old Jaden back when he was in the academy and how he never seemed to show animosity towards anyone, even if they clearly hated him.

Crowler smiled inwardly, though his expression was one of stoic neutrality, but Jaden's expression became serious, causing the effeminate teacher to gaze questioningly at him as he realised that Jaden was not just here to see this Euphie person duel.

"Anyway, I also have a favour to ask of you," Jaden said as he glanced to his left, causing Crowler to follow his gaze until he saw Jaden stop when his eyes fell on a pink-haired girl who was chatting away with a girl who had already passed her exam.

"Is that her?" Crowler asked curiously, nudging his head towards the pinkette.

"If you mean the girl with pink hair, then yes," Jaden said as his serious look hardened, "Anyway, I need you to do me a huge favour."

"Well, I suppose I could," Crowler said, still maintaining his tone of neutral indifference, "After all, you did save me after that vampire woman sealed my soul into that disgusting voodoo doll, not to mention you saved the world from Nightshroud; myself included, so I suppose I owe you a few favours, so what is it?"

"Well, you see, it's like this; Euphie doesn't believe she's that good and well, she seems to think that her duel's going to be rigged to ensure that she wins and she told me that she doesn't want her proctor losing on purpose or to have to duel against a deck that she could easily defeat and given how weak some of those test decks are, I think she's going to believe that everything was rigged in her favour."

"Uh huh," Crowler said simply with a nod, "And what do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could be the one who duel's her using your own deck like you did with me during my entrance exam," Jaden said with a nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his head, "It would really be a great help. Knowing you, I doubt Euphie will think her duel was rigged."

"I see," Crowler said as he closed his eyes, thinking it over, "You want me to duel her using my own deck?"

Jaden only nodded in reply.

"I know you wouldn't deliberately throw a duel," he said as he glanced back to look at Euphemia, "You're too full of pride to do that."

That much was true, Crowler had to admit. He was not the sort of person who would deliberately lose to his opponent in a duel. In fact, the very thought of it was an insult to him. To many, losing a duel on purpose was dishonourable and considered a great insult as duellists mainly liked to win through their own skills and not because their opponents just rolled over and handed them the victory. Even if Crowler wanted his opponent to win, which was a rarity, his pride would simply not just let him throw in the towel. Duellists liked to test their skills against one another so that when they lose every now and then, they could work on improving them and seek out new cards to add to their decks so they could do better whenever they met again for a rematch like how Crowler managed to do considerably better against Jaden during their rematch and though he lost, Crowler remembered how he managed to get Jaden down to two hundred life points as opposed to two thousand during their first duel and managed to back him into a corner.

"I see what you mean," Crowler said, still in his neutral tone, "But wouldn't my personal deck be a bit much for her?"

Jaden just laughed dismissively.

"I wouldn't be asking you to do this if I felt that Euphie couldn't handle it," he said in his usual cheerfully carefree tone before his face became serious again, "Anyway, will you do it?"

Crowler wrapped the side of his index finger round his chin and started rubbing it as he thought it over.

"Hmmm, oh alright then, I'll do it," Crowler said as he brought his hand to his side and started to walk off, but stopped and turned back to look at Jaden, "But I really think that she should be made aware of this."

"Sure, whatever," Jaden said with a shrug as he looked around and noticed Yumi's sister, who was also staring in Euphemia's direction, though she was staring more at her sister rather than Euphemia and he was about to go find an area where he could watch the duel until he noticed the boy beside Yumi's sister looking down at the duelling field in morbid interest and his eyes widened in shock as he clearly recognised the boy.

"S-S-S-Suzaku Kururugi?" he thought in alarm as the boy clearly looked an awful lot like Suzaku; in fact he looked enough like Suzaku to pass for his identical twin brother, though the only giveaway that it was not Suzaku was the fact the boy had a noticeably darker skin tone, "Either this is just a coincidence or Suzaku somehow managed to track her down and follow her here after getting a major tan."

"Excuse me," he said, speaking aloud as he turned to face the nearest staff member, "But who is that boy over there?"

The staff member looked over in the boy's direction and smiled.

"That's Zukasu Rikuguru," he said dismissively as he waved off Jaden's alarmed tone, "He scored full-marks in the written exam and won his duel in record time and he also has sufficient grades from Duel Monsters Prep School to qualify as an Obelisk."

Jaden just nodded.

"Zukasu Rikuguru, that's an anagram of Suzaku Kururugi, Euphie's former Knight of Honour," he thought as he started to walk away, though his gaze never left Zukasu, "I don't know what's going on here, but this could pose a problem. I best keep an eye on him."

Of course, he could call up on Yubel's powers to get to the bottom of it, but at the moment, he was in a crowded area and dare not risk someone noticing his eyes changing colour as he knew he would undoubtedly have to deal with the unwanted attention that would bring, so he decided to wait. He was planning on following Euphie to Duel Academy to keep an eye on her anyway. Now, he would also watch Zukasu closely to see what his game was and to find his connection to Suzaku before something disastrous happened and Euphemia regained her memories too soon.

"Maybe I should give Axel or Chazz a call and see if they could do a background check on this Zukasu Rikuguru," he thought with a nod of finality.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Yumi, James Jonah Jamison or the "J-Man" as he liked to be called came up to the back row of seats and sat at an empty chair beside the steps as Euphemia and Yumi walked over to him.<p>

"Congratulations on your victory… James was it…?" Euphemia spoke, unsure how to address the boy.

"The J-Man would prefer it if you just called him J-Man," James said simply as he took off his duel disk and placed it beside hit to his right, "The J-Man's father's a Spider-Man fanatic and since he shared the same surname as the editor of the Daily Bugle, he thought that giving his son the same name would be cool."

Euphemia and Yumi both turned to look at each other, unsure on how to respond.

"Anyway, thanks for the congrats," James went on, ignoring the two girls' confusion before turning his head to face them; "The J-Man's full name is James Jonah Jamison, what's yours?"

"Euphemia Felixton," Euphemia said simply

"Yumi Fujiharu," Yumi said nervously as she looked ready to dive behind Euphemia and use her as a shield.

"Nice to meetcha," James greeted with a smile as he took off his sunglasses before folding them up and then placed them back into his jacket, "It's not every day two lovely girls such as yourselves come up and introduce themselves to someone like the J-Man."

"What's wrong with you?" Euphemia asked curiously, finding it hard to believe that this guy asked such a question as it implied that he believed there was something wrong with him.

Yumi studied James nervously as if afraid he was going to do something to her or ridicule her somehow. She was used to it, people always ridiculing her and comparing her to her big sister, Seika and because of that, she believed that not only was she a poor duellist, but also that everyone she met would find some reason or other to ridicule her and all because of who her sister was. Since the graduation of Alexis Rhodes last year, Seika Fujiharu had become the best female duellist in the academy and this was her last year and Yumi wanted to make her proud, but unfortunately, Seika just stared at her with that usual rock-hard, stone-cold stare she usually did and it seriously shattered what little confidence she had managed to gather to the point where she only managed to win her duel by an amazing streak of good luck.

"The J-Man looks like a stereotypical punk," James said in response to Euphemia's question with a hint of sorrow in his voice, "Normally everyone avoids the J-Man because of the way I dress, but hey, I'm just being myself. Is that a crime?"

"So long as you're not hurting anyone, then no, being yourself isn't a crime," Euphemia replied, shaking her head and flashed him a smile, "I'm not one who judges by appearances. Looks aren't everything."

"Thanks," James said with a relieved sigh, happy that someone wasn't deterred by his punkish appearance and from the looks of it, the pinkette's friend, who looked nervous of him seemed to gain a bit of courage, though she still looked unsure.

"Will Euphemia Felixton please make her way to duel-field number one?" a voice boomed throughout the Kaiba Dome over the PA speakers, "I repeat, will Euphemia Felixton please make her way to duel-field number one?"

"Well, that's me, wish me luck guys," Euphemia said as she made her way down the steps towards the duelling fields.

"Wow, with the way she talks, it's as if we were all long-time friends," Yumi pointed out in surprise as she took note of Euphemia's friendly carefree tone.

"Good luck Euphie!" James called out as he waved down at her.

He then turned to Yumi who only gulped nervously, letting James know that she was still weary of him, though he did his best to ignore it.

"The J-Man can call her Euphie, can't he?" he asked the nervous girl sounding unsure of himself; "I mean it is short for Euphemia, isn't it?"

Yumi nodded nervously though she was confused as to why he asked her.

"Well, your friend's going to need luck," a new voice came from behind them, causing both Yumi and James to turn their heads and glance over their shoulders, though the sound of the girl's voice caused Yumi to almost jump out her skin.

"Yes," another voice, a boy's came, "Just look who her proctor is."

Standing behind them a few feet away were a boy and a girl standing beside one another. The girl, who had spoken first, had long dark reddish brown hair with two pigtails running down her front in a spiral formation down to her stomach area and was tied in place by two cyan coloured ribbons and dark brown eyes. She wore the same style of boots the Obelisk Blue girls wore; only they were a custard yellow colour, a short skirt that was the same colour as her boots and a mostly white sleeveless blazer with a custard-yellow shoulder band and a darker yellow highlighting the areas of the blazer that the light blue colour and white highlighted on the Obelisk Blue blazers. She also had a pair of ovular-shaped glasses with a yellow frame. The boy on the other hand had neatly combed dark red hair with the same coloured eyes as the girl. He wore the same kind of boots as the Slifer Red students tended to wear, only they were yellow in the areas were the red was situated. He also wore white trousers and a yellow blazer that was mostly the same yellow colour as the girl's boots, skirt and shoulder band and it was the shoulder band that was white.

"Oops, sorry if we butted in," the girl apologised with a bow, "It's just that my brother and I had just gotten our uniforms and were on our way to see the rest of the duels and we couldn't help but notice that your friend's about to duel. I'm Abigail Richardson, by the way."

"And I'm her slightly older twin brother, Terrance Richardson," the boy said with a smile.

"Oh, we just met," Yumi said rather hurriedly, "Really, did we really seem like friends?"

"Anyway, who's the chick in the duelling field?" James asked as he noticed what looked like a bleach blonde-haired woman wearing a blue blazer and had a duel-tray that looked more like a rock star's guitar standing in the duelling field that Euphemia had been assigned.

"He is Dr Vellian Crowler, the head of the top dorm at the academy as well as its Vice-Chancellor," Terrance said simply, "I know, he looks like a woman. You're not the first one to make that mistake."

"Wow, hold on a minute; that's a guy!" Yumi said in a rather shocked tone as all the colour drained out of her face at the thought of her new friend facing off against this… "she-male" for lack of a better term.

"Dude, the J-Man says that that is messed up," James commented, having similar thoughts as Yumi as he exampled Crowler more closely, "Looks like he had a sex-change operation that went horribly wrong."

"I'm with you," Yumi said in agreement.

"I wouldn't say things like that," Abigail said with a stern look on her face as she then glanced down at Dr Crowler with a look of sympathy in her eyes.

"Dr Crowler's very sensitive about his gender," Terrance started to explain with the same serious, no-nonsense stern look as his sister adorning his face, "He hates being called mister or missus, so if you don't want to upset him, I suggest you call him, Doctor. One time during these entrance exams, someone made that mistake and he pretty much ended the exams early before all applicants had their turn to duel and sent them all home; all because he was upset that someone brought up the issue of his gender."

"Yeah, he cut one third of the applicants that year and I also hear that Duel Academy narrowly avoided a lawsuit brought on by several angry parents, some of whom were in positions of power," Abigail finished.

"Oh," Yumi said, now feeling disgusted with herself as she heard the Richardson twins' story and looked down at Crowler, along with James, both now feeling sorry for him.

"Anyway, let's just watch the duel," she said after regaining her composure, to which everyone nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, on the duelling field, a portion of the floor slid open, creating a circular hole and the Euphemia came out, ascending on an elevator as she noticed two girls walking away from her duelling proctor, who had long bleach-blonde hair tied into a ponytail at the back, held in place by a long, tight purple hair band. He also had dark greyish blue eyes and what appeared to be dark purple lipstick on his lips. He wore greyish white boots that went up to halfway between his knees and ankles, tight black trousers and a blue blazer with a white outline and huge thick epaulets on his shoulders as well as a huge ruffled pink high-rise collar that went up to where the tops of his ears were and also ruffled pink coffs attached to the ends of his sleeves. He also had a pair of crescent-shaped earrings with light bluish green orbs inside the crescents and the crescents pointing towards the sides of his face. However, what struck Euphemia's interest was not just the fact her duelling proctor looked a bit like a woman, but mounted on the front of his blazer like a bulletproof vest was a circular object with a blue orb of to the upper right and a deck of cards pointing downwards at a diagonal angle at the lower right hand side with an arrow-shaped "roof" an and a red arrow pointing in the same direction within the "roof" Opposite the deck of deck was an opening facing upwards at the same diagonal angle as the deck of cards.<p>

"Must be his deck and graveyard slots," Euphemia thought to herself as she also noticed a ridiculously huge duel tray that looked a bit like a rock star's guitar with a black rectangular area that she guessed must display his life points.

The duel tray was attached to a silver pole that was mounted beneath the duel vest just above his left hip.

"Alright, test time," the proctor said in a stoic neutral tone of professionalism, "Your name?"

"Oh, Euphemia, Euphemia Felixton, sir," Euphemia said as she turned to face the proctor, whom she had to say creped her out due to the fact he looked a bit like a woman, but she wisely kept her thoughts to herself as she was not one to offend people and feared that he was sensitive about his gender.

"Well Miss Felixton, I'm Dr Vellian Crowler, Department Chair of Techniques here at Duel Academy as well as its Vice-Chancellor," the proctor said and noticed the uncomfortable look on Euphemia's face, which caused him to frown, "And I know my gender may confuse you, but I can assure you that I'm one hundred percent male and I do not like to be called mister or missus, so to avoid confusion, I would appreciate it if you addressed me as, Doctor. I have a Ph.D. in duelling."

"Sure, no problem, Dr Crowler," Euphemia said with a nod as she gave him a sympathetic look, "My most humble apologies, Doctor, I didn't mean to offend you."

Crowler's eyes widened in shock at hearing Euphemia's apology, not just because he genuinely had not expected it, but looking into Euphemia's eyes, he could tell that she was being serious and that her apology was genuine and though he would not admit it, he was actually quite touched.

"Yes, well… apology accepted," he said simply after recovering from his shock before his look became serious, "You're the girl that Jaden Yūki recommended join Duel Academy, aren't you?"

"Uh huh," Euphemia said with a nod, feeling a bit nervous under the effeminate man's stoic gaze.

"And he tells me that you're fearful that your duel will be rigged in your favour," Crowler went on, ignoring Euphemia's nervous trembling, "You feel that if your proctor doesn't lose on purpose then you'd be up against a deck that yours could easily defeat, is that right?"

* * *

><p>"Wow, she was recommended by Jaden Yūki?" Stella's orange-haired friend said in surprise from where she and her friends were having overheard what Crowler just said, "The Jaden Yūki?"<p>

"She must really be something if Jaden recommended her here," Stella's other friend said as she was as stunned as her friend.

"Jaden Yūki, bah, he's nothing but a no-good dirty little cheat," Stella scoffed as she shook her head as she looked down at Euphemia, "That girl's just a nameless nobody he probably picked up off the streets. I'm just sorry that I'm not the one duelling her."

"How can you say that?" the orange-haired girl asked with an expression of pure shock as if she could not believe what her friend had just said, "Jaden Yūki was one of the best students in the academy during his time there. In fact, I hear the only student he couldn't beat was his friend's big brother, Zane Truesdale. Jaden hardly ever lost a duel."

"He's a cheat," Stella said, shooting her friend a glare as if seeing her gesture as an act of defiance, "Or have you forgotten that he was put into the Slifer Red Dorm, the dorm that's at the bottom of the totem pole? Slifers are nothing more than talentless wannabes who're only allowed to attend because Seto Kaiba decided to make them believe that they had a chance at achieving their hopes and dreams. They're just nobodies living a pointless delusion. The only way to accomplish your hopes and dreams is by crushing the hopes and dreams of everyone else."

"How could Jaden possibly cheat?" the short-haired girl asked Stella, as if challenging her to think of a reply and from the boastful look on her face, it was clear she believed that her friend could not come up with one.

"How am I supposed to know?" Stella said honestly with a hint of fury in her voice, "But I just know that a Slifer Red could not have been that good unless he managed to cheat somehow. It's the only explanation."

"Or maybe not everyone in Slifer Red's as weak as you like to think they are," the orangette thought, though she knew better than to voice this out loud.

Both of Stella's friends knew that she was not someone they wanted to anger, neither did they want to be in her presence when she was angry since they were the ones she normally took it out on.

"Anyway, I'm gonna enjoy watching Dr Crowler mop the floor with that Pink-haired Floozy," Stella went on, ignoring the looks of her friends as she grinned watching Euphemia before frowning, "It's just a shame it's not me duelling her. She'd be a helluva lot of fun to destroy."

Looking down at Euphemia, she could tell that she was the pure and innocent type; the kind who were kind and caring and was full of love for everyone and everything. Those kinds of people were the ones she enjoyed crushing the most. They were the delusional kind who believed that the world was full of love and proving them wrong while brutally traumatising them psychologically brought out the most pleasure in her as they were the kind who did not deserve it the most.

"Still, if what I hear about Crowler's true, I'll enjoy seeing her crushed when Crowler's through with her," she went on as her grin once again turned into a frown, "I just wish it was me."

* * *

><p>Back in the duelling field, Euphemia nodded to Crowler enquiry.<p>

"Yes, that's right, I gather that he told you, didn't he?" she said, feeling a bit nervous.

"Yes, which is why he recommended that I be the one to duel you," Crowler said simply, "I'm not a person who loses a duel on purpose and I'll be using my own personal deck for this duel. I'm sure as the duel progresses, you'll realise that I duel to win."

"Yes sir," Euphemia said as she nodded and a smile appeared on her face as she brushed aside her nervousness, "To be honest, I don't know if I'm good enough to be at the academy, but I'm going to give it my all."

She then removed her deck from her deck-holder and placed it into the deck slot of her duel disk, which was an old Battle City style model and activated it before drawing five cards.

"Duel vest on," Crowler said as he activated his duel vest and drew five cards.

"GAME ON!" both Euphemia and Crowler shouted in unison as the signified that the duel had begun.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Crowler**: 4000

* * *

><p>"Wow, is that even fair?" the Suzaku look-alike, Zukasu said as he played back what Crowler had just said, "Using his own personal deck for the duel, is that allowed?"<p>

However as his gaze fell on Euphemia, he could not help but feel mesmerised by her appearance. He could not explain why, but for some reason, he felt a sense of déjà vu about her, like he knew her and he had to admit that he found himself going along with it. He felt like he knew her personality and would not be surprised at anything she did. In short, he felt that he was drawn to her; like love at first sight and he was so embroiled in his emotions that he did not think to ask himself why.

"Well, he's the proctor, so it's his rules," Yumi's sister said in response as she just looked down on the duelling field with a look of disinterest, "Besides; no one pulled him up for it when he duelled Jaden Yuki three years ago."

"Probably because Jaden won," Zukasu pointed out as he turned his head to look at her, "Anyway, regardless of the circumstances, I still say that it's unfair; even if Jaden did suggest it."

"Softy," Yumi's sister said with a shrug.

* * *

><p>"You don't mind if I go first, do you?" Euphemia asked Crowler questioningly.<p>

"Of course not, Miss Felixton," Crowler said dismissively, though he was surprised by her attitude.

"She's definitely not like Jaden, that's for sure and yet, she seems to show the same determination that he did," he added in his thoughts, "Okay, let's see if Jaden's recommendation for this girl wasn't misplaced."

"Call me Euphemia or Euphie if you prefer," Euphemia said with a smile as she drew a sixth card from her deck and looked at her hand, which had Horned Kuriboh, Monster Reborn, Spellbinding Circle, Apprentice Magician, Magical Blast and Old Vindictive Magician, which she just drew.

"Okay, doc, I'll first summon Apprentice Magical in defence mode and then I'll place a card facedown and that'll do," she said as she placed the Apprentice Magician (400/800) card in her hand onto the second right spot of her monster-zone on her duel tray and inserted a card into the second left slot in her spell/trap card-zone and the Apprentice Magician appeared on the field; a tomboyish girl with flaming blonde hair and wearing purple robes with no sleeves, though her boots looked to be decorated in the same style as the Dark Magician's and she also had purple armbands that ran the length of her forearms, a red bandana tied round her forehead and a white belt that came to a point at the centre and had a golden ornament within it. She also wielded a light green staff and appeared in a kneeling position, kneeling on one knee with her arms crossed over while holding her staff in her right hand and a life-sized version of her card appeared underneath her. A life-sized card also appeared on the field, not far from the Apprentice Magician, though all that could be seen was the back since it was facedown and to the duellists, appeared vertical.

"Okay, Euphemia, this is good, but I told you that I duel to win and now I'm going to prove it," Crowler said as he drew his sixth card and looked at his hand.

In his hand was Ancient Gear Golem, Statue of the Wicked, another Statue of the Wicked, Ancient Gear Soldier, Heavy Storm and Confiscation, which he had just drawn.

"Okay now, I'll think I'll started by playing the spell card, Confiscation," he said, showing Euphemia a card with the image of a knight walking away with a treasure chest in his arms and a peasant with his arms round the knight's leg before inserting it into a spell/trap slot, "Basically, I pay one thousand life points to send a card in your hand to the graveyard."

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Crowler**: 3000

What happened then was that holograms of the cards in Euphemia's hand appeared in front of Crowler, ascending as if on a screen.

"Yes, I see," he said as he looked over all the cards in front of him, "If I had to guess, I'm guessing that your deck consists of mostly spellcaster-type monsters, am I right?"

"Yep, I just find spellcasters rather appealing to me," Euphemia said with a nod and a beaming smile, "I don't know why, but I feel as if they chose me and not the other way round. Yūgi Mutō said that sometimes cards choose their masters, so I guess that's what happened here."

"Quite," Crowler said with a nod as he got back to business before he made up his mind and pointed to the Horned Kuriboh card, "Okay, Kuriboh, it's off to the graveyard with you."

The card hologram then turned round to face Euphemia and Euphemia groaned as she placed the Horned Kuriboh card on her disk at the area just outside her graveyard slot and the card moved into it, indicating that it had gone to the graveyard, though Euphemia noticed that Crowler had addressed the card as Kuriboh and not Horned Kuriboh, though whether it was a mistake on his part or he just happened to see Kuribohs as all the same remained to be seen.

"You just made a big mistake Dr Crowler," she thought mischievously.

"Whooow!" a high-pitched sound seemed to echo in her head, causing her eyes to widen in surprise for a moment, but after a few seconds, she waved it off as her imagination.

"Next I think I'll place two cards facedown," Crowler spoke up, indicating that he was proceeding with his turn as he discarded the used Confiscation card into his graveyard slot and placed two cards into two spell/trap slots and moved to play another card, "And then I'll play this; Heavy Storm."

He then showed a spell card with the image of wind spiralling in a circle and various objects, including a tree, a few boulders along with a cow and a man caught in the wind before playing it and then a huge strong wind seemed to pick up on the duelling field.

"This card allows me to destroy all spell and trap cards on the field," Crowler announced with a wicked smile on his face as Euphemia's facedown card moved up at a ninety-degree angle, revealing that it was Spellbinding Circle, which had a picture depicting a greyish blue, green and red multi-coloured background with a a green circle in the foreground with lines going up and down the hoolow aread and in front of that were four golden circles at the top, botten and at either side and each circle had a triangle within them and not only that, but in the centrebetween those four circles was a whitish blue energy forming a shape similar to either a Japanese kanji symbol or a question mark and to the right of the curved top was a V shape and to the left was what looked sort of like a person, before it shattered to pieces and disappeared.

"You do realise that that Heavy Storm destroys all spell and trap cards on both sides of the field, including your own, don't you?" Euphemia asked in confusion as she noted that Dr Crowler had two facedown cards on the field as well, which were also destroyed.

"Yes, well, that was the point," Crowler said with a maniacal smile as dark clouds appeared to form on his side of the field and the background behind appeared to turn black.

"W-what's happening?" Euphemia asked, feeling a bit afraid as two golden serpentine like monsters with four eyes and two arms appeared where the two destroyed trap cards had been set.

"I just summoned two Wicked Tokens," Crowler said with a smirk as the two Wicked Tokens (1000/1000x2) roared at Euphemia, bearing their teeth.

* * *

><p>"Okay does anyone mind explaining to me what just happened?" Yumi asked, looking confused at seeing what just happened, "How'd he do that?"<p>

"The J-Man is at a loss to explain this as well, he should only allowed to normal summon one monster per turn," James said, equally confused.

"He was able to do that because those two trap cards that were destroyed were called, Statue of the Wicked," Abigail pointed out.

"It's a special trap card that summons a vicious monster token when destroyed," Terrance went on, picking up where his sister left off, "That's why Dr Crowler played Heavy Storm."

"But what could he possibly do with those two token monsters?" Yumi asked curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" James replied, looking at Yumi as if he could not believe she did not know the answer to her own question, "He intends to sacrifice them to bring out a level seven or higher monster, even the J-Man could gather that much and if the J-Man was a bettin' man, he'd have to say that he's bringing out his strongest monster."

"He must really want to end this quickly if he's bringing out his best monster on his first turn," Terrance observed as he analysed the situation.

* * *

><p>Stella smirked from where she and her two friends were sitting, though she had mixed feelings about Euphemia's predicament. On one hand, she was glad that someone she saw as a nobody was going to be "put in her place" as she saw it and yet, at the same time, she was a bit miffed at the fact that it was not her that was doing it; especially considering the fact that Dr Crowler seemed to want to end this quickly as she knew what he had planned.<p>

"If that were me, I'd drag it out for as long as possible," she said aloud with a sadistic grin as she imagined herself facing off against Euphemia and slowly torturing her into a frightened state, "I'd let her believe she had won before pulling out the big guns. It's more devastating when they think they've won only to have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory."

"Whatever you say, Stella," her short-haired friend said with the orangette nodding in agreement.

"It's a shame though, she has absolutely no chance for victory," the sadistic teal-haired girl went on, ignoring her friend's statement, "Crushing her would've made my day all the sweeter. I especially like it when they become quivering cowards looking for the nearest tree to cling to."

"Why are we friends with her again?" the orangette whispered to the short-haired girl, obviously a bit intimidated by Stella's sadistic nature.

The short haired girl just shook her head with a clueless look on her face.

* * *

><p>Back down on the duelling field, Euphemia looked in awe at the two serpentine like monsters.<p>

"Statue of the Wicked," she said, nodding in conclusion, "You're planning on sacrificing them to bring out your best monster, aren't you."

"Yes, that is correct, now do you believe that this duel is rigged in your favour?" Crowler asked in a slightly sadistic tone with a smug grin on his face.

"Heck no," Euphemia said with an excited, yet determined smile of her own, "You can proceed now."

Crowler nodded as he extended his arm towards the two Wicked Tokens.

"Now I sacrifice the two Wicked Tokens to summon my Ancient Gear Golem," he announced as the two token monsters seemed to burst into flames and started writhing around in pain as they both vanished and Crowler took a card in his hand and placed it on a spot in his monster zone.

Suddenly a huge grey robot like creature seemed to rise out of the floor and took its place between where the two Wicked Tokens had been. The creature, Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000) had gears mounted on its left shoulder and inside its head, which looked like a helmet with a red light shining out of its left area where the eye was supposed to be. Its left fingers seemed more like claws while its right fingers looked more like fingers and each knee joint had a spike protruding outwards.

"Wow, three thousand attack points, I'm awe struck," Euphemia said in awe as she looked up at the Ancient Gear Golem.

* * *

><p>"I still say this isn't fair," Zukasu said from where he was, next to Yumi's sister, "She doesn't stand a chance against that thing."<p>

"Well, if what Crowler said was true, then she's got no one to blame other than herself," Yumi's sister said uncaringly with a shrug.

"I guess you're right, Seika," Zukasu said with a sigh, but then smiled as he noticed Euphemia was not trembling and actually looked ready to try and take down the huge robotic machine, "But at least she's not throwing in the towel."

"That'll probably change soon," Yumi's sister, Seika said dismissively, not in the least bit impressed at Euphemia, "It's probably just her youth and inexperience. I say that Jaden was wasting his time when he recommended that girl."

* * *

><p>Back on the duelling field, Crowler smirked.<p>

"Okay, Golem, now attack!" Crowler declared as he pointed at Euphemia's Apprentice Magician, "Mechanized Melee!"

The gears within Ancient Gear Golem's head started to spin at a rapid rate as it balled its right hand into a fist and lunged its massive arm towards the Apprentice Magician and slammed its fist into her. The Apprentice Magician saw the attack coming and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact as the massive fist slammed into her, causing her to shatter into triangular pieces that vanished almost immediately.

* * *

><p>"Wow, that was the same opening move he used against me during our first match," Jaden thought with a smile as he watched from behind the crowds at the opposite end of the Kaiba Dome from where Yumi, James, Abigail and Terrance were.<p>

He then turned to look at Euphemia.

"It's just too bad that her Apprentice Magician has two hundred less defence points than my Avian," he went on as his look turned curious, "Now Euphie, just what will you do now?"

* * *

><p>Yumi cringed from where she and the other three onlookers were.<p>

"She's off to a bad start," she noted with a hint of worry in her voice, "Apprentice Magician only has eight hundred defence points where as Ancient Gear Golem's attack points are at three thousand."

"Unfortunately for her, it's about to get even worse," Terrance said in observation, "You see, Ancient Gear Golem is a monster that can do piercing damage."

"In other words, if it does battle with a monster in defence mode, then the difference between its attack points and the defending monster's defence points are dealt to the defending monster's owner as damage," Abigail went on, picking up where her brother left off, "So basically, it can do damage regarding of what mode the opposing monster is in and it shares this ability with monsters like Spear Dragon, Elemental Hero Bladedge, Cyber End Dragon and many more."

"That that means…" Yumi started to say before trailing off as her eyes widened in alarm, "Euphie's life points are going to take a hit!"

* * *

><p>Back on the duelling field, Euphemia braced herself as she saw a transparent version of Ancient Gear Golem's fist coming straight towards her and winced as it passed through her, leaving her unharmed.<p>

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 3000

That was a thing about the holographic technology used in Duel Monsters. The holograms looked so realistic that sometimes the brain was fooled into believing that they were real and people had reported phantom sensations of pain whenever they were attacked directly or suffered damage due to a card effect. However, the phantom pain only lasted a few seconds, though some people when taking hits that looked devastating and seemed to be blown off their feet had just subconsciously jumped back as the sensation came.

In any case, Euphemia just chuckled as she looked up at the Ancient Gear Golem with a determined look on her face as she removed the Apprentice Magician card from its place in her monster zone and placed it into the graveyard.

"Piercing damage, I have to admit that I never expected that," she said honestly as she analysed the situation, "Even though the chances of winning this are undoubtedly slim, I'm not going to give up."

Crowler just looked at Euphemia, surprised by her admission that the odds were against her and yet, touched at the determination she was showing. She knew that her chances of winning were slim, but she was sure as hell going to try and find a way out of this.

"Just like Jaden," he thought as a smile subconsciously etched itself onto the corners of his lips, "He never gave up either no matter how much the odds were stacked against him and always somehow managed to pull off the impossible when it seemed that his defeat was assured."

"Anyway, I now activate the special ability of my Apprentice Magician," Euphemia went on as she took a card from her hand and placed it horizontally in her monster zone, though the back of the card was facing up, indicating that she had placed it facedown, "When she's destroyed, I can take a level two or lower spellcaster monster from my hand and summon it face down in defence mode."

A facedown life-sized holographic version of the card she placed down appeared on the field where her Apprentice Magician had been, only unlike her Spellbinding Circle card that she placed down earlier, to her and Crowler, this facedown card appeared in a horizontal position in the monster zone.

"Fine, fine, I end my turn," Crowler said dismissively, waving his right hand in an uncaring manner.

Euphemia smirked as she drew a card and found that it was Pot of Greed.

"Okay, so he has Ancient Gear Golem on the field and no facedown cards," she thought as she analysed the situation, "I could use the ability of my Old Vindictive Magician to take out his Golem, leaving him defenceless, but with only four hundred and fifty attack points, I won't do much damage to his life points, so I'll just play this and hope for the best and with Magical Blast, it's still won't be enough."

"Okay, first, I play the spell card, Pot of Greed," she said as she showed the card of the green decorated pot with a grinning face on it to Crowler before placing into one of her spell/trap slots and then a holographic version of the pot appeared on the field, "As you probably already know, this lets me draw two cards from my deck."

She then drew two cards from her deck and then smiled as she went for the second one she drew.

"Okay, now I'll summon Magician's Valkyria in attack mode," she went on as she placed the card she had just selected and placed it in her monster zone in a vertical position.

A woman with brownish orange hair and wearing an outfit similar to Dark Magician Girl, only a dark bluish green colour with a yellow outline and high-heeled boots appeared on the field wielding a staff with the top shaped like a hook with three green orbs at the side and yellow spikes protruding along the top. This was Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800).

"I then play one card facedown," Euphemia went on as she placed the first card she had drawn with Pot of Greed's effect into an empty spell/trap slot as she then disposed of the used Pot of Greed card into her graveyard, "And then I'll flip my facedown monster up."

She then did so and revealed an old tan-skinned man with greyish white hair and wearing red robes with a blue cape and red armour similar to what the Dark Magician wore with a yellow outline and a purple orb embed in the area above the centre of the man's head with a pentagram-style star on it. He wielded a green staff with the top shaped like a bird's beck with the bird looking up and it also had a purple orb with a pentagram-style star embedded in it. The man was kneeling on one knee in a defensive position, indicating that he was in defence mode.

"Meet my Old Vindictive Magician," Euphemia said as her smile grew even wider, "And when he's flipped over from the facedown defence position, he can destroy one monster that monster opponent controls; namely, your Ancient Gear Golem."

"Oh no!" Crowler said in alarm as he realised what had just happened just as the Old Vindictive Magician (450/600) fired a green energy blast from his staff at the Ancient Gear Golem, causing it to explode and the audience all gasped in astonishment at how easily Euphemia had managed to take down Crowler's best monster.

"Oh yes, and now I switch Old Vindictive Magician into attack mode," Euphemia said with a smug looking smirk on her face as she brought her hand over the Old Vindictive Magician card and moved into a vertical position and the Old Vindictive Magician on the field suddenly stood up and readied his staff for an attack, "Now then, Magician's Valkyria, you're up. Attack him directly."

Magician's Valkyria then readied her staff as an energy ball started to form at the point of the hook and she then hurled it at Crowler, who only screamed and brought his arms up in front of his face at the energy ball made contact, causing him to stumble back a few steps.

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 1400

"And now, Old Vindictive Magician, it's your turn," he heard Euphemia say before he had a chance to recover and braced himself for a second direct attack.

The Old Vindictive Magician complied as he fired a blast of energy from his staff at Crowler, which made contact, causing the effeminate teacher to wince as he had been more prepared this time.

**Euphemia**: 1800 - **Crowler**: 950

"And I'll think I'll conclude by playing the spell card, Magical Blast," Euphemia continued to speak as she showed Crowler a spell card with the image of two shadowed spellcaster-type monster and one was holding their staff up and an orb of spiralling blue, red and purple energy towards their opponents, "When I activate this when I have a spellcaster on the field, I can inflict two hundred points of damage to your life points for every spellcaster on my side of the field and since I have two, you take four hundred points of damage. "

She then inserted the card into a spell/trap slot and an orb of energy the same colours as the one depicted in the image appeared in front of the two spellcasters, though it seemed that Valkyria was channelling it more than the Old Vindictive Magician. The orb was then sent hurtling towards Crowler who looked on the verge of having a panic attack and from the looks of it, Euphemia and everyone else watching would not have been surprised if he ran from the duelling field. Nonetheless, the orb slammed into him, sending him off his feet and causing him to land on his back.

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 550

* * *

><p>"Nice one, Euphie," Jaden said with a nod from where he was, "You managed to turn the duel around in your favour."<p>

He then looked at Crowler, who was in the process of picking himself up off the floor.

"But I wouldn't count Dr C out just yet," he went on in his thoughts, "I'm sure he has some sort of backup plan."

* * *

><p>"Wow, she managed to wipe out a huge chunk of his life points in just one turn," Yumi said as she looked on in astonishment at what her new friend just did.<p>

"The J-Man is at a loss for words," James said in equal shock.

"Maybe she just had a lucky hand," Terrance pointed out, "You see, in Duel Monsters, when you draw cards, you never know what card you're going to draw next and you'll just have to go with whatever card you draw."

"What my brother means is, you can't always draw the right card at the right time, so you'll just have to make do with the cards you have in your hand until you draw the card you need," Abigail finished for her brother.

"Is this a thing with you two?" Yumi said as she turned her head to face the Richardson Twins, "Does one of you always start an explanation and the other finishes it?"

"Yes," both twins answered in unison.

"Okay…" Yumi said in a hesitant tone as she turned her attention back to the duel.

* * *

><p>"Just dumb luck," Stella scoffed in an uncaring tone from where she was, "Beginner's luck, that's all it is."<p>

Though the part of her that was not happy about the fact that she was not the one duelling Euphemia started to get a bit hopeful and even root for Euphemia just for the sole pleasure of duelling her and then crushing her at a later date.

* * *

><p>Zukasu smiled as he looked down at Euphemia from where he and Seika were.<p>

"Well, how do you like that, she managed not only to defeat that monster, but also utilise her monsters in combination with that Magical Blast spell card to deal a great amount of damage to Dr Crowler that turn," he said, looking impressed, "Maybe Jaden's recommendation wasn't as misplaced as you originally thought, eh, Seika?"

"Perhaps," Seika said with her arms folded with the same look on her face as before, indicating that she was not impressed by any of it, "It could just be that she had a lucky opening hand."

Zukasu just scoffed as he briefly glanced back at her before turning his attention back towards the duel.

"You're really hard to please, you know that," he said with a sigh, "No wonder your sister's got such an inferiority complex."

Seika just remained silent although her eyes did briefly glance in her sister's direction before she let out an uncaring huff.

* * *

><p>"Dr Crowler, are you alright?" Euphemia asked in a slightly panicked tone from back down on the duelling field, fearing that he was hurt.<p>

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine," Crowler said as he picked himself up and started dusting himself off and then smiled at Euphemia, though he was a bit surprised at her concern for his well-being, "That was impressive, my dear, but this duel's not over yet."

"Okay, in that case, I'll end my turn and defer to you," Euphemia said with a sigh of relief.

Crowler nodded and he placed his right hand underneath his duel vest as his index and middle fingers parted at where his deck was. The red arrow on the "roof" of his deck slot flashed red for a brief moment and the top card in his deck shot out into the gap between his fingers and he then closed the gap, taking the card and smiled once he added it to his hand.

"Okay, now I activate the spell card, Card of Sanctity," he said as he showed Euphemia a card with the image of two knights raising their helmets into the sky as coins rained down from a golden orb against a blue sky before inserting it into the middle spell/trap slot, "This allows us both to draw until we're holding six cards."

He then drew five additional cards and Euphemia did the same before taking a look at them. He had the Ancient Gear Soldier from his opening hand and now had added, a second Ancient Gear Soldier, Damage Condenser, Emergency Provisions, Premature Burial and Ancient Gear Drill to his hand.

"Perfect," he thought with a wicked grin, "With this I can resurrect my Ancient Gear Golem and take out her Valkyria. As much as I would like to go after that Old Vindictive Magician first, Valkyria's special ability makes it so that she's the only spellcaster-type monster that can be targeted while she's on the field. Oh well, I can always wait till next turn."

He then selected his Damage Condenser trap card and inserted it into a vacant spell/trap slot.

"I place one card facedown," he announced as the holographic representation of his facedown card appeared on the field, "And then I play the spell card, Emergency Provisions."

He then inserted a card into another spell/trap slot; one with the image of two small thin tins and a wrapper with square crackers, arranged three-by-three with one part of one of the crackers broken off sitting on a table.

"When I play this, I gain one thousand life points for each spell or trap card I destroy on my side of the field," he explained as he removed the Damage Condenser card from its slot and its holographic version shattered into pieces before vanishing.

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 1550

Once he discarded the Damage Condenser and Emergency Provision to the graveyard, he then took the Premature Burial card from his hand and then showed it to Euphemia. The image was of a man with dark blue sin that appeared to be skinning into the ground and he had his hand reached up as he screamed. In front of the man was a red painted circle with a glow white light in the centre.

"I activate the spell, Premature Burial," he said smugly, "With this; all I have to do is pay eight hundred life points to revive my Ancient Gear Golem."

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 750

Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000) then rose back up from the ground as Crowler removed its card from the graveyard and placed it on the same monster-zone space as the last time.

Euphemia just groaned in dissatisfaction.

"Now, Golem, attack her Valkyria with Mechanized Melee," Crowler ordered as he pointed at Euphemia's Valkyria.

Once again, the enormous behemoth lurched forward and sent its right fist hurtling towards the defenceless Valkyria.

"Not so fast," Euphemia said with a determined look on her face, "I activate the special ability of my Horned Kuriboh."

"What, Horned Kuriboh?" Crowler said in confusion.

"You sent him to the graveyard on your first turn, don't you remember?" Euphemia asked curiously.

"What, but I thought that it was an ordinary Kuriboh," Crowler said in stunned surprise.

"Well you were wrong," Euphemia stated simply as the Horned Kuriboh card came out of her graveyard slot and she took it and then took out her deck from her deck slot and added Horned Kuriboh to it before reshuffling it, "When Horned Kuriboh is in the graveyard, I can return him to my deck and reshuffle and in exchange, I don't take any battle damage this turn, but luckily for you, your attack's still on."

She then put her deck back into the deck slot as Ancient Gear Golem's fist slammed into Valkyria, causing her to shatter and disappear, but due to the effect of Horned Kuriboh, Euphemia's life points were safe.

"If I had known about your Golem's piercing effect earlier, I would have done this before Apprentice Magician was destroyed, but alas, I didn't know your monster had a piercing effect," Euphemia said, explaining why she did not use Horned Kuriboh's ability before.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Crowler said in astonished disbelief, unable to believe that he had made a mistake and because of it, Euphemia had shown him up.

* * *

><p>"Well, well, there's something dear old Dr Crowler didn't know," Zukasu said with a smirk.<p>

"Even experts can't be expected to know everything," Seika said, still unimpressed with Euphemia's performance, "With all that knowledge, they tend to forget things from time to time and besides; that card's a fairly new addition, so it's hardly surprising that there are those still unfamiliar with its effect."

"Well that girl sure knew it and she made Dr Crowler pay for it, big time," Zukasu pointed out with a smirk as Seika opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again, realising that she had nothing to counter him with.

"Humph, whatever," she said simply instead, feeling a bit peeved at losing that little exchange.

* * *

><p>Back on the duelling field, Euphemia then looked at the six cards in her hand and her grin widened. In her hand was Monster Reborn from her opening hand and the five cards that she drew when Dr Crowler had played Card of Sanctity were Illusion Magician, Black Magic Ritual, Magician of Black Chaos, Spellcaster's Arena and Dark Magician.<p>

"Now I reveal my trap card, Replacement Clone," Euphemia said with a smirk as she pushed a button on her duel disk and the facedown card she had placed on the field came upwards like it was a trapdoor opening up revealing a card with the image of a green dragon that was fading away into nothing and an identical green dragon then looked to be moving into its place, "With this trap card, if I have another monster with the same name as the one that was destroyed in my deck or in my hand, then I can summon it to the field in defence mode.

Another Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800) suddenly appeared on the field as Euphemia sifted through her deck and brought the card out and placed it on an empty monster space, only this one was kneeling with her staff at her side on the ground.

"I end my turn," Crowler growled, still furious with himself that he had made a rather amateurish mistake in regards to that Horned Kuriboh card as he had not read it properly and just assumed that it was a regular Kuriboh and to make matters worse, he not only paid for it when Euphemia prevented herself from receiving damage, he also had another Valkyria to contend with.

"Well, it's been fun, Dr Crowler," Euphemia said with a smile, "I had fun duelling you, but this duel is over."

"Oh, and what makes you say that?" Crowler asked curiously as he raised an eyebrow.

"Because I play the spell card, Black Magic Ritual," the pinkette announced as she placed a card with the image of a spellcaster style circle behind two fire-torches mounted on staffs in an empty spell/trap slot and then the image on the card appeared on the field and Valkyria walked over to the fire-torch on the left.

"By sacrificing monsters either on the field or in my hand with levels equal to eight or more, I will summon the monster that will end this duel," she explained as she selected the Illusion magician in her hand and placed it onto an empty monster spot and then what could only be described as a caricature of the Dark Magician appeared on the field with grey hands, a face shrouded in black and two yellow dots that were obviously eyes. The Illusion Magician (1250/1050) also had a small staff that caricatured the Dark Magician's as well and it walked over to the fire-torch opposite the one Valkyria stood at.

"Now, I sacrifice both Magician's Valkyria and Illusion Magician to summon, the Magician of Black Chaos," Euphemia concluded her speech as the two monsters suddenly had a glow white line appearing beneath them and as it rose upwards, it seemed to erased both monsters from existence in the same manner as an eraser on paper and from the spell-circle, a man with blue skin and long black hair wearing a tight black jumpsuit with dark pink straps round his arms and legs and black straps at the front attached to a metal circle on his chest. He also had a black, pink striped hat that seemed to jut out in the directions of his sides in both directions and also had to oval shaped orbs at the centre and a pink ornament shaped a bit like a sword pointing upwards at the top and front. He also wielded a black and pink staff.

The Magician of Black Chaos (2800/2600) stood as he stared down the Ancient Gear Golem.

"That's going to end the duel," Crowler laughed with a snigger as he held his left side with his right hand and he lurched forward, apparently finding it funny, "I hate to break it to you, Euphemia, but he's two hundred attack points short of being strong enough to defeat my Golem."

"I know, that's why I play this, the field spell, Spellcaster's Arena," Euphemia chuckled, finding Crowler laughter amusing as she showed him a spell card depicting a black sky and a black ground with a white line separating the two and on the circle was a spell-circle and two silhouettes of two spellcasters facing off against one another.

On Euphemia's duel disk, the side of her duel tray seemed to open up, revealing a sixth card placement and Euphemia placed the card into it and it closed again and then suddenly, like magic, the duelling field seemed to vanish and they were both in complete blackness as image on the card seemed to come to life with the only source of light being from the greenish yellow spell-circle on the hard black ground.

"Okay, now, Magician of Black Chaos, end this duel!" Euphemia stated in an authoritative tone as she stretched her arm out towards the Ancient Gear Golem with the finger on her hand spread wide.

The Magician of Black Chaos nodded and lunged towards the Ancient Gear Golem and Crowler just smiled.

"If you want to go down fighting, then so be it," he boasted as he leaned towards the oncoming monster, "This field spell of yours hasn't decreased the attack points…"

He suddenly trailed off as a shocking realisation dawned on him and he found himself mentally kicking himself as he realised that he made another mistake; one that he had also made during his first duel with Jaden.

"Oh no, your field spell…!" Crowler started to say as he remembered Jaden's Skyscraper field spell had a similar ability.

"Raises the attack points of any spellcaster-type monster by one thousand when they do battle with a monster with more attack points than them," Euphemia finished for him, "It's the Skyscraper field spell equivalent for spellcasters."

The Magician of Black Chaos (3800/2600) continued running towards the Ancient Gear Golem and then twirled its staff before taking it in both hands and hurled a blue orb of energy towards the Ancient Gear Golem as if it had hit a ball with a baseball bat.

"My Golem!" Crowler said in pure shock as the energy orb punched a hole through the centre of its huge torso and then causing it to explode.

"And since the difference in attack points was eight hundred and since you only have seven hundred and fifty life points left, you lose the duel," Euphemia said in a tone of finality.

**Euphemia (winner)**: 1800 – **Crowler**: 0

The holograms them all vanished as the duel was over as Euphemia brought her right arm over her stomach and then moved it to extend towards Crowler with the fingers in her hand outstretched.

"And that's all she wrote," she said as she flashed Crowler a brief wink, "So I guess I passed, huh, Dr Crowler?"

"Yes, you pass," Crowler said with a nod as he gave her a smile, clearly impressed with how she duelled and how she managed to defeat him.

"Just like Jaden," he thought with a smile, "Though I can't say she has the hallmarks of a female Jaden, I just know that things will get interesting with her at the academy."

"If it's any consolation, Dr Crowler, then I probably just won that duel through an amazing stroke of good luck," Euphemia said with a laugh, "Though you did help me when you played your Card of Sanctity spell."

"I don't think you just won by sheer luck, Euphemia," Crowler said with a smile, "I was also Jaden's proctor when he took this test and he beat me while I was using my own deck as well. I can see that you have potential."

Euphemia looked at Crowler in surprise. In all honesty, she believed that she had only won by a fluke, but since Crowler was complimenting her, she decided that it was best not to argue. She then took out her deck and noticed the Horned Kuriboh card.

"Well, I may not have been able to play you on the field, but nonetheless your ability did come in handy," she said while feeling a bit stupid since she was talking to a card.

"Whooow!" the same high-pitched noise she had heard earlier came again and then the Horned Kuriboh in the card appeared to briefly come to life and winked at Euphemia with its right eye, causing her eyes to widen in shock as she closed her eyes and shook her head.

Once she regained her composure and saw that the card was the same as it had been before, she just laughed it off.

"Must be my imagination," she said to herself with a laugh, "Just a trick of the light."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Stella just down at Euphemia in disbelief as what she had just witnessed.<p>

"No way," she seethed as she glared at Euphemia with wide eyes, "There's no way a guy like Dr Crowler could've lost to some floozy like her."

Her anger over Euphemia only seemed to increase as the audience all started cheering after they recovered from their initial shock.

"Either it was dumb luck or she's a no-good dirty-rotten cheat like Jaden was," she concluded as she fought to calm herself down and slowly, but sure felt the tightness of her clenched fist slacken and then her angry expression transformed into a sadistic smile.

"Oh well, on the positive side, at least I can now get the opportunity to duel her myself," she said aloud in a boastful tone as she uncrossed her legs and removed her feet from the person in front of her's head; much to his relief and then stood up, "And when we duel, you can pretty much guarantee that she'll be nothing more than a quivering wreck spending the rest of her life at some mental institution with a case of severe paranoia."

She then burst into evil laughter, causing her two friends to shiver in fear as it was clear they both feared her and seeing their fearful looks as she turned to face them brought a sadistically gleeful smile to Stella's face.

"Eileen, Hailey, come on, we're outta here," she said as she started to walk away and Eileen, the orangette and Hailey, the short-haired girl reluctantly stood up and followed on behind her, though they maintained a safe distance from her as Stella had this nasty habit of lashing out at anyone who got too close to her or if someone angered her, she tended to lash out and slug the person nearest to her regardless if they were the guilty party or not.

* * *

><p>"She won!" Yumi exclaimed with a sigh of relieve, "I can't believe it. She really pulled through."<p>

James just nodded with a smile.

"Nice, we could really do with some tough competition, couldn't we brother?" Abigail said, turning to face her brother.

"Yep, that's true," Terrance said with an excited smile, "Something tells me that that Euphemia girl will be one of the ones to beat at the academy."

"The J-Man thinks so as well," James said with a nod of agreement, "However; she's rather friendly, isn't she?"

"Yeah," Yumi said as she looked down at the pinkette, "I don't know what it is, but there's something about her that just makes you want to be her friend and even though we just met, the way we ended up talking to one another; it was as if we had been friends for years."

That much was true, she could admit. She had been nervous of Euphemia at first just like everyone else she had met, but once Euphemia had started talking to her and she reluctantly opened up, she found herself relaxing her guard and found it easier to talk to her. There was something about Euphemia that was rather soothing and she seemed to want to befriend everyone and even though she hardly knew her or James, Abigail and Terrance for that matter, Yumi somehow found herself feeling more comfortable and at ease in their presence as they watched Euphemia duel and once again, she owed it to Euphemia for that.

* * *

><p>"Well, she won, I can honestly say that Euphie's got a future here," Zukasu said, though he almost immediately widened his eyes in shock at what he just said.<p>

"Humph, just dumb luck," Seika grumbled as she appeared to storm off like a child in a huff at not getting their way, totally ignoring Zukasu's shocked expression.

"What?" Zukasu thought to himself, not realising that Seika had just left him alone, "Euphie…? I suppose that's short for Euphemia and I remember hearing her give her name to Crowler, but why did I just call her that?"

It really frightened him. He knew that Euphie was an abbreviation of Euphemia, but the way he had said it and the manner in which it had come out of his mouth terrified him; not only because he felt drawn to her since he first laid eyes on her, but also because he had uttered her name as if he already knew it. It had come out as if calling her Euphie was natural for him and as if they had been long-time friends, but that wasn't true. Zukasu remembered everything that had happened in his life and he did not remember meeting Euphemia before, so then why was it that he was feeling that he knew who she was? Why was it that he knew that she preferred to be called Euphie and why was it that he felt that he could just go with the flow as if the fact he should not know anything about her meant nothing?

However, he shook his head, bringing himself out of his thoughts and back to reality and noticed that Seika had left.

"Oh that girl," he said with a laugh, "I swear, she's impossible to impress."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Jaden after seeing Euphemia win and smiling at her achievement noticed Zukasu, whom he noticed was now alone and his eyes narrowed as he again noted his near-identical resemblance to Suzaku. This was indeed a troubling development and he knew that he would have to tell the mysterious voice when it next made contact with him. However, until that time he decided to take his own initiative and have his own investigation carried out into Zukasu. He knew there was a possibility that he was just being paranoid and that the fact that Zukasu and Suzaku looked identical could just be purely coincidental since they were not even from the same dimension and sometimes people from dimensions could resemble people from other dimensions with no link whatsoever, but the fact that Zukasu Rikuguru was an anagram of Suzaku Kururugi caused Jaden to become suspicious, plus the fact that he seemed rather spaced-out after addressing Euphemia as Euphie when he had not even met her only served to increase those suspicions.<p>

Jaden found himself reaching into his right trouser pocket and pulled out a cell phone and then opened it up and dialled a number.

"Hello, it's me," he said after he heard the person he was calling answer after three rings, "Listen, I really need you to do something for me. It's rather important."

He then listened as the person on the other end started to talk and his mind could not help but wonder just what had happened to Lelouch after he had made off with Euphemia's body as he had not stuck around to see how his rebellion had gone.

* * *

><p><strong>Code Geass world – Pendragon, Britannian Homeland, Airship Avalon brig, two months earlier<strong>

Lelouch Lamperouge, formally Lelouch vi Britannia and also known as Zero lay in a prison restraint suit looking up at the ceiling with a cold, emotionless look on his face. He just could not believe how things had played out. First his Geass had raged out of control, which forced him to kill the only one of his siblings he cared about aside from Nunnally because he had been foolish enough not to take heed of the pain that had flared up in his left eye, which caused his Geass to switch itself on and stay on permanently and that had cost many Japanese people their lives. However, if that wasn't enough, he had turned it to his advantage and questioned Cornelia about his mother's assassination, only to learn that Marianne herself had ordered security at the Aries Villa to be dropped to a bare minimum and that the body had been disposed of, though he could not think as to why. Everyone knew that Marianne was a commoner, so it could not have been to cover up her heritage. There was something strange about the whole thing and what else was strange was that Nunnally had been kidnapped, causing him to abandon the Black Rebellion to go rescue her. Of course, he knew that abandoning the rebellion led to its collapse, but in truth he really did not care. Nunnally meant more to him than anything in the world. She was all he had left and he would sooner send the whole world plummeting down to Hell rather than live in it without her. Unfortunately, it had proved his undoing as Suzaku somehow found out about his Geass and believed that he intentionally used it to make Euphemia order that massacre and had become emotionally unstable to the point where he was beyond reason and Suzaku had somehow escaped the trap that he had set for him and tracked him down to Kamine Island.

Of course, Lelouch understood the reasons behind Suzaku's instability, but his anger over his ignorance of Nunnally and the fact that he clearly considered Nunnally's fate as collateral damage overrode his understanding. He remembered trying to broker a truce with Suzaku, but Suzaku just would not listen to reason, he was too furious and full of grief. Lelouch just could not believe… or rather refused to believe that Suzaku was willing to sacrifice Nunnally just to get to him, though considering that he had fallen in love with Euphemia, Lelouch could not say he blamed him for it. After all, he had been the one who had murdered Euphemia and Lelouch knew that if it had been any of his friends, he probably would have been the same way, but in his anger, he just refused to acknowledge it.

Speaking of Euphemia, Lelouch had been surprised to learn that her body had mysteriously vanished from her room. He had overheard some of the guards talking about it and one of them even came in to question him about it as if it had been one of his plans, but in all honesty, Lelouch was at a loss to explain it. Apparently, the security camera for the room had experienced a fault and when the fault had cleared, Euphemia's body was missing and the doctor and nurse that had seen to her were unconscious on the floor, though they had woken up hours later feeling fine, though they could not remember what had happened and Lelouch knew that they had told the truth as he remembered one of the guards mentioning that Suzaku beat the living daylights out of the doctor while demanding an explanation, but unfortunately the doctor could not answer him.

"It has nothing to do with me," Lelouch thought as he thought about it, "Even I could not pull off something that good. Heck, I doubt even Schneizel could pull it off either."

That was true. For all his smarts, he just could not manage to plan how sneak on board an airship that was airborne and snatch a body, incapacitate two witnesses while erasing their memories and escape unnoticed. It was impossible. Even if they had been on board beforehand, they just could not have stolen an aircraft and escaped. The fleeing aircraft would have been detected and shot down, not to mention, it would cause a commotion on board. No, for all his brilliance, this was something that was far beyond his ability to execute.

However, the question remained, why did whoever stole Euphemia's body steal it in the first place and just how could they manage to pull it off without drawing attention? He knew that Geass was out as from what he had learned, Geass affected the mind and though it could possibly account for the doctor and nurse falling into unconsciousness without a mark being left on their bodies and waking up with no apparent memory of what they had seen, it did not account for how they managed to escape. Even if they had a Geass that could make them invisible to others, the other security camera's would have seen them as, he knew that Geass could not affect people over monitors and even if they had managed to cover that, he was sure that Euphemia's body would have been seen and yet, the Avalon's security team had scoured the ship continuously and were continuing to do so with no such luck in finding the culprit.

The door to his cell suddenly opened as Suzaku walked in with that same dead emotionless look on his face as he looked down at his former friend; his eyes filled with disgusted contempt as it was clear he was resisting the urge to kill him right there and then.

"Come on, Lelouch," he said in a dead tone, "It's time to go."

He then advanced on him with the intention of carrying him before the Emperor to use as a means of getting one step closer to obtaining his goals.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Euphemia and Yumi are on a helicopter en route to Duel Academy.

"_Wow, I'm so excited," Euphemia says excitedly, "I managed to beat Dr Crowler."_

"_I'm nervous," Yumi says in a nervous tone as she doesn't know what to expect._

The new students stand before Challenger Sheppard who's on a monitor welcoming them and Euphemia and Yumi are wearing Slifer Red Blazers.

"_I don't know about this, Euphie," Yumi says in an increasingly panicked tone, "What if we're not welcome."_

"_Nonsense, Yumi, we're freshmen... or is that fresh-women, gee I don't know," Euphemia says, sounding a bit confused._

"_You better be careful, apparently that old dorm superiority thing hasn't gone away," Jaden interrupts, "Man it seems that now that I'm gone, it's back with a vengeance."_

Blair Flannigan is in Jaden's old room in the Slifer Red Dorm along with Euphemia and Yumi and she's explaining how the dorm colour system works.

Later Euphemia and Yumi bump into Eileen and Hailey, Stella's two friends.

"_Just who is she?" Euphemia asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice._

Stella walks over to Euphemia talking to her.

"_I don't know, but she scares me," Yumi says, feeling the need to duck behind Euphemia._

"_That's Stella Harrington," Eileen says with a hint of boastfulness, yet fear at the same time in her voice, "Of all the female students that went to Duel Monster Prep School, she scored the highest with only two boys scoring higher than her."_

"_Hey, your ruining my moment," Stella growls._

Euphemia and Stella arrange to meet for a duel.

The first-year Slifer Red students are in the Dorm dining hall and the new head of the dorm walks in.

_I'm not sure about this, Euphie, I mean, that Stella girl looks like she's out to destroy you," Yumi warns Euphemia nervously._

"_Oh you just worry too much," Euphemia says dismissively, "I was warned of her type before I entered the academy. She doesn't bother me at all."_

Stella and Euphemia stand facing one another in the main academy arena as Zukasu, James, Abigail and Terrance show up.

"GAME ON!" both Stella and Euphemia yell in unison as their duel starts

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

"_Bring it on, Stella," Euphemia challenges in a defiant tone, "You may think you're the best, but I'll show you that you're just as human as everyone else."_

Stella has a look of pure shock on her face as she's unable to believe that she just lost.

Jaden, who is watching answers his cell phone as he gazes at Zukasu.

"_Next time: Duel Academy Hierarchy!" Yumi says as he tone becomes nervous, "I think we best watch our backs Euphie. You may have won, but something tells me that you've made a very dangerous enemy."_

Stella glares murderously at Euphemia as she and Yumi both leave.

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><p><strong>Card of the Chapter<strong>

**Name** – Spellcaster Arena

**Image** – A black sky and a black ground with a white line separating the two and on the circle was a spell-circle and two silhouettes of two spellcasters facing off against one another.

**Type** – Field Spell

**Info** – When a Spellcaster-Type monster you control battles an opponent's monster whose ATK in higher, the Spellcaster gains 1000 ATK during damage calculation only.

"_Gee, a field spell's the card of the chapter?" Jaden says in disappointment, "I was hoping for a monster card."_

"_Well Yu-Gi-Oh! GX's Card of the Week in the Japanese version had mostly monster cards, though it threw in the odd spell or trap card or two," the author says, "I decided to do the same, don't like it, tough!"_

"_Humph!" Jaden simply says._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – That chapter took forever. In fact, I spend five to six days typing it up and it was longer than I anticipated. Still, I managed to finish and hoped that I did an okay job writing the duel. In future I think I'll just describe what's happening on the field unless the duellists actually do something like send cards to the graveyard or remove cards from the grave yard. As I already said before, this fic will have OCs and I've introduced many of them (the majority of the main cast) this chapter and their profiles will be up on my profile soon. Anyway, I hope I did okay and I would appreciate some reviews.


	3. Duel Academy Hierarchy!

**Euphemia of the Duel Acamdey**

**Duel Academy Hierarchy!**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

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><p><strong>Chapter Summary<strong> – Two months since the Black Rebellion failed and Princess Cornelia, who has gone under the radar to uncover the existence of Geass and clear Euphemia's name remembers her sister and the events that unfolded after the collapse of the SAZ and ponders on the disappearance of Euphemia's body after overhearing a discussion about it as well as struggle to come to terms with some harsh truths between her and Euphemia. Meanwhile, Euphemia and her new friends arrive at Duel Academy and prepare to get settled in. Placed in Slifer Red at her own, as well as Jaden's request, Euphemia and Yumi both quickly learn about the Duel Academy's hierarchy and immediately, Euphemia makes it her goal to prove to everyone that the colour of ones coat does not necessarily reflect duelling skill. However, one Obelisk Blue student has her sights set on Euphemia and plans on destroying her and sending her to a mental institution just for the sake of her own twisted amusement. Can Euphemia be able to defeat Stella and prove her point or will Euphemia's stay at Duel Academy be a short-lived experience? One thing is certain though, Stella will discover that breaking Euphemia will be a lot harder than she bargained for.

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><p><strong>Code Geass world – <strong>**Tōkyō ****Settlement, "Area Eleven", Government Bureau building, two months earlier (Cornelia's dream)**

"_How could you do something so foolish?" Cornelia boomed in fury as she stormed into her sister's office, "Do you realise the implications of what you've done?"_

_It had been a few hours since Euphemia had announced her plans to establish the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan and needless to say, Princess Cornelia, Second Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire and Viceroy of "Area Eleven"; formerly Japan as well as Chief General of the Imperial Army was not in the least bit pleased to say the least. Euphemia, who was sitting at her desk, had not long returned from her trip to Ashford Academy, where she had been discovered after she had sneaked out of the Government Bureau and had announced her plans. To say Cornelia was upset was an understatement; she was absolutely seething with fury. She just could not believe that her little sister would go behind her back and do something like this. Of course, she knew of her sister's kind and caring nature and how she did not "get with the program", but this… this totally went against what Britannia stood for and being someone who went along with the status quo, despite having several misgivings about it, she just could not accept what Euphemia had announced._

"_I don't see the harm in it," Euphemia spoke up in a tone that suggested she had anticipated her sister's disapproval, "I just want to give the Japanese their home back."_

"_Elevens!" Cornelia snapped furiously, "They are Elevens, not Japanese and I already told you that discrimination against the numbers is our national policy."_

"_And I told you that maybe it's high time that we should change it!" Euphemia said in a surprisingly stern tone as she got up out of her chair and stared at her older sister with a look of defiance as if daring her to challenge her, "It's because of our policy that there's terrorism, it's because of our policy that people like Zero are fighting against us. Zero killed our brother, Clovis; yes, I'll admit that, but he had his reasons. Clovis ordered the massacre of several unarmed Japanese and for what… poison gas?"_

"_Who cares about the lives of those lowlife vermin?" Cornelia replied with a scoff, "They deserved it. Elevens are nothing but disgusting little heathens that just can't accept change. That's why they resort to terrorism."_

_Euphemia just shook her head and glared at her sister._

"_The reason they resort to terrorism is because we've intruded on their land, reduced them to nothing and treat them like they're not even people," Euphemia countered, much to Cornelia's shock and her eyes widened in disbelief as she just could not believe that her sister was standing up to her, "Why should they accept changes that they don't benefit from. They just want their home back and that's what I'm doing. You say that you want change and I think that Britannia needs to change and if you can't accept that, then you're nothing more than a hypocrite as you told me that the Japanese refuse to accept change."_

_Cornelia opened her mouth to reply, but almost immediately stopped herself, since she realised that she had nothing to say to counter her sister's claim._

"_You do realise as Viceroy, I can veto this," she said instead with a triumphant smirk, believing that she had already won._

"_I discussed it with Brother Schneizel and he agreed with me," Euphemia said as she folded her arms and sat back down, "He told me that he would tell you, but I guess it must've slipped his mind; either that or he never got round to telling you."_

"_WHAT!" Cornelia boomed in pure shock, unable to believe that her little sister had actually gone over her head and sought authorisation from a higher authority since Schneizel was Britannia's Prime Minister and could overrule a Viceroy's authority if he so chose, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!"_

"_I knew you'd refuse, that's why," Euphemia said simply in a slightly angry tone, "And I'm sick of being just a figurehead. I want to do something to help those people. I know you've sheltered and protected me from the "Big Bad World" and I'm grateful for that, but I think it's time I went out on my own."_

"_If you do this, you'll lose your title as Princess," Cornelia said simply as she glared at her little sister, unable to accept the fact that Euphemia was standing up for herself, "That's His Majesty, the Emperor's degree."_

"_So be it," Euphemia said immediately with no hesitation whatsoever._

"_Fine," Cornelia huffed in a tone of finality, furious over the situation as she turned on her heel and started to storm out of the room._

_She then stopped at the door and turned her head to glance back at her sister._

"_Do what you want, Euphemia," she went on; her tone filled with anger and disappointment, "But don't expect me to give you any help when you realise what a grave mistake you're making. As of this moment, we're through! You can go and see your Eleven fuck-toy if you want any help!"_

_She then walked off, not giving Euphemia a chance to reply._

* * *

><p><strong>Present, Unknown Location, Chinese Federation, Hotel room<strong>

Cornelia awoke with a start from the dream she just had as she bolted into a sitting position. Her dream had been the memory of the last time she had spoken to her sister before the disaster of the SAZ occurred; in short it had been the last time she had been in her sister's presence when she was alive and needless to say, Cornelia found herself regretting what she had said to Euphemia that day. Looking around, she saw that she was in the hotel room she had rented for the night somewhere in the Chinese Federation. It was still dark outside and Cornelia found herself lying back down on the bed she was in and glanced at the clock sitting on the bedside table to her left, which read 03:45.

"Only Quarter-to-Four in the morning," she said with a stressful sigh, bringing the back of her hand up to her forehead, "Another sleepless night, that's just what I need."

Two months had passed since the Black Rebellion occurred; brought on by the apparent massacre at the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan; a massacre that was believed to have been orchestrated by Euphemia li Britannia, but in truth was actually caused by the masked terrorist known as Zero who used a supernatural power known as Geass to hypnotise Euphemia into carrying it out. That's what Cornelia believed and what was more shocking was that Zero was in reality, Lelouch vi Britannia; one of her half-siblings whom was believed to have perished seven years ago during the war with Japan. It was one of the main reasons Cornelia had hated the "Elevens". She had held them responsible for the deaths of not just Clovis, but Lelouch and Nunnally as well, but as it turned out, the most wanted man in Britannia had turned out to be one of the siblings she had been hoping to avenge and in all honesty, she could understand why Lelouch had done what he did. After all, their father had sent him and his sister to a foreign land to use as bargaining chips, only to sacrifice them and invade that foreign land and why…? All because Lelouch had dared confront him about the assassination of his mother and then tell him what he thought of him to his face. Cornelia knew that Lelouch had resented their father for that and she also shared his resentment to a degree since Marianne had been her idol and the Emperor had done nothing to bring Marianne's killers to justice and sent her children to a country that he had already been planning to invade; probably to get rid of them. She remembered how the Emperor had pronounced Lelouch and Nunnally dead in the first days of the war before any the names of the fatalities had been officially published. Lelouch's time in "Area Eleven" had no doubted caused his resentment to grow. Cornelia understood this… and yet she found herself growing to hate her half-brother.

"I don't care what your reasons are, Lelouch," she thought furiously as her expression hardened into a glare as she stared up at the ceiling as if trying to burn a hole through it with her eyes, "What you did to Euphie was unforgiveable. I won't rest till I see you dead at my feet. Euphie didn't deserve that. She was innocent."

True, she knew that she would probably never forgive Lelouch for what he had done. Despite her understanding of his reasons and motives, she just could not bring herself to forgive him and all because Euphemia had been caught up in his quest for revenge. Despite what she had said to Euphemia when they were last face-to-face, she had not really meant what she had said and had let her anger take over. She had not agreed with the SAZ, though Schneizel managed to convince her to agree… albeit reluctantly since he told her that he only agreed because he saw it as a means of taking away the Black Knights' public support as terrorist organisations could not function as effectively without support, though Cornelia had misgivings as she believed that Zero would seek to sabotage the SAZ in some way and discredit Euphemia and in the end, she had been proven right. Zero did sabotage the SAZ and he had discredited Euphemia. She knew that even before she learned the existence of Geass from Suzaku Kururugi, though before then, she had no idea how she had forced her to commit such an atrocity, but she knew that Zero was somehow responsible. Nevertheless, she fought Zero and gained the upper hand; only to apparently be betrayed by her subordinate, Andreas Darlton, who helped Zero in crippling her Knightmare; only to be killed immediately afterwards in pretty much the same manner as Euphemia. Zero had used his Geass on Darlton to get him to help him and once his usefulness expired, he had killed him just like when he used his Geass to make Euphemia start that massacre only to kill her when she was of no further use to him.

Anyway, she had been shocked to discover that Zero was in fact her supposedly-dead half-brother and she knew that he had used his Geass on her, though she could not remember what she had done while under its influence. She remembered looking up into his left eye once she had been released from it and seeing the reddish orange glow of the bird like sigil within. It had shocked her and it was then that she realised that that was what he had used to make Euphemia kill all those people and force Darlton to betray her, though it was only when Suzaku had met up with her after an insane Jeremiah Gottwald forced Lelouch and his accomplice to flee before they could deal with her that she heard the name, Geass for the first time and now she had gone under the radar to expose the existence of Geass and clear Euphemia's name. She had learned since then that she had been declared MIA, possibly dead and that suited her just fine. She could go about her quest without the fear of the homeland recalling her or looking into her activities. She had, after all; managed to smuggle herself out of "Area Eleven" and into the Chinese Federation.

"I'm so sorry, Euphie," she thought as her eyes started to water and a lone tear trickled down the right side of her face.

If she had known that the last time she had seen her sister alive was when she had fallen out with her, then she would have accompanied her while she deliberated the opening ceremony of the SAZ, but instead, she had been too furious with Euphemia and sent Darlton to "advise" her since he seemed convinced that it would lead to Zero's downfall, though Darlton's real mission had been to keep an eye on her and make sure she did not become too assertive as Cornelia knew how many Britannians saw this as a means of controlling the "Elevens" while pulling the wool over their eyes while using Euphemia as a puppet and human shield, if things went wrong and feared that if Euphemia started to assert her authority then they would just dispose of her and probably use the "Elevens" as scapegoats. Darlton's job had been to ensure that that did not happen, though the more Cornelia thought about it, the more she came to realise that she just could not accept the fact that her sister was growing up and had been at the age where she could fend for herself.

Cornelia had been there for Euphemia ever since Euphemia had been a baby and she had been fiercely protective of her. She remembered how Euphemia would always come to her whenever she had a problem and how she would always dote on her. They had been rather close as children and Cornelia had wanted it to stay that way. She did not want to lose her sister despite what she had said to Euphemia suggesting the contrary. She just could not take the fact that Euphemia was old enough to look after herself. She did not want Euphemia looking after herself; she wanted to do that for Euphemia, though many would argue that she was incestuously obsessed with her little sister; this was not the case. She was just worried for her safety and did not want to lose her. Maybe that was why she hated Lelouch so much. The last time she had interacted with her sister; she had pretty much seemed to disown her and Lelouch had killed her before she had the chance to make things right. Now she believed that Euphemia died believing that her older sister hated her guts and she would never have the chance to apologise.

"Lelouch, you've become every bit a monster as the ones you're fighting against," she thought furiously as she clenched her eyes shut and tears started to pour down the sides of her face.

The more she thought about what Euphemia had said to her during their last interaction, the more she started to see how right Euphemia had been, though she had been too full of anger to listen. Euphemia had even labelled her a hypocrite and the more Cornelia thought about it, the more a rather disturbing truth was starting to emerge. Euphemia had been right and yet, Cornelia realised that she had known that she was right even then, but she just did not like the idea of being shown up by her younger sibling. Cornelia had pride in her reputation as the Witch of Britannia and the Goddess of Victory and saw Euphemia as her little sister and like many older siblings, she believed that their younger sibling was inferior to them. Euphemia had for a time developed an interest in Knightmare Frame piloting, but Cornelia had managed to talk her out of it. She now realised that as well as trying to protect her, she was also a bit fearful that Euphemia could potentially outdo her. Maybe that was why she disagreed with her over the SAZ. Part of her feared that Euphemia would succeed in her goal and the people may have started to view her as being better than her older sister and that was something Cornelia, though she did not realise it at the time, would not stand for. That part of her believed that Euphemia was younger; therefore should be inferior to her in every way and Cornelia had feared Euphemia proving her wrong, though her love for her sister overrode whatever animosity that had existed before; especially now since Euphemia was dead. Cornelia genuinely loved her little sister to bits, but feared being outdone by her and secretly hoped that something would happen to derail Euphemia's efforts, though she had not imagined that it would have cost Euphemia her life. Now, Cornelia had gotten her wish, but not in the way she had wanted and she found that she now hated herself for it.

Another thing that upset her was that she had recently overheard two people talking about the SAZ massacre; for which Euphemia was now known as Princess Massacre, one of them had mentioned how there were rumours flying about that Euphemia's body had mysteriously vanished without a trace from the Avalon during the Black Rebellion while the Avalon was still up in the air. That had shocked Cornelia and as much as she wanted to dismiss what the man had said as just a rumour, she found that she just could not do that. After all, the majority of rumours had a seed of truth in them and if something like that had managed to make it into the public domain, then it had to be true. However, it was unbelievable that a dead body could simply just vanish. Listening further, Cornelia remembered how the man had went on to explain how he heard that someone had apparently snatched the body and somehow managed to make his getaway unnoticed and Cornelia had to say that that was just impossible. There was no way anyone could have sneaked on board a craft as heavily guarded as the Avalon and then make their getaway after snatching a dead body without being noticed. There was just no way it could be done. Heck even Schneizel, who knew the schematics of the Avalon like the back of his hand could not pull something like that off. Even if the person had already been on board, there was no way they could have escaped without someone noticing. It just could not be explained.

"But just what would anyone want with a dead body?" Cornelia thought in wonder as she turned her head to her left and glanced at the cloak, which read 04:05, "I doubt I'm going to get any more sleep tonight."

She did consider Geass being a possibility, but unfortunately she knew too little about Geass to blame it and from what Lelouch displayed with his Geass, it seemed that Geass was confined to affecting people's minds. This was something that had affected the physical world, so she found herself agreeing with the notion that Geass was not responsible for Euphemia's body's disappearance and she also found herself agreeing with the notion that Lelouch and the Black Knights had nothing to do with it; even if Lelouch had wanted to make sure that Euphemia was truly dead, there was no way even he, for all his tactical brilliance could have pulled something like that off. Whoever did had to have possessed some other supernatural power as the only explanation Cornelia could think of was teleportation and that seemed impossible, but considering the nature of the body's disappearance, what other explanation could there be?

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><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! world – Over the Sothern Seas, Helicopter en-route to Duel Academy Island<strong>

Euphemia awoke with a start as she had been dozing off after she had boarded the helicopter, which was a passenger version of a Chinook helicopter that was dark greyish blue in colour. She was currently sitting next to Yumi Fujiharu, the girl she had met at the Entrance Exams four days ago with Yumi having the seat next to the window.

"Euphie?" Yumi said as she noticed her new friend's somewhat shocked expression.

"What?" Euphemia said as she turned to face Yumi with a confused look on her face, "That's just weird."

"No, dozing off in your seat while on board a moving vehicle isn't weird," Yumi said with a laugh, "Unless you happen to be the driver that is."

"No, it's not that," Euphemia said in a confused tone, "I know I was dreaming, but I can't remember what it was I was dreaming about. All I know is that someone was upset over something I did and we had an argument and the person I was arguing with fell out with me."

"You're getting worked up over a silly dream?" Yumi said, looking at Euphemia questioningly, "What's up with that? Everyone has dreams that they can't remember when they wake up from time to time. Heck, I know I was dreaming last night and yet when I woke up, I couldn't remember what it was about."

"Yeah… I'm probably just a bit jittery at starting at Duel Academy," Euphemia said dismissively, though from the sound of her tone, Yumi could tell that she was unsure of herself and seemed to be trying to convince herself of that, "I don't know why I got so worked up over a lousy dream."

"Attention, new academy students, this is your captain speaking," a voice came over the helicopter's PA just as Yumi opened her mouth to reply to Euphemia's statement, "We are on our final approach to Duel Academy Island, if you look out the windows on your right, you'll get your first glimpse of your new home away from home."

Yumi and Euphemia looked out their window with Euphemia standing up and moving her head closer to get a better view. Behind them sat James and Terrance with James sitting at the window-seat and Terrance followed Euphemia's example in standing up and behind them was Terrance's twin sister, Abigail sitting at the window-seat. The students on the other side of the helicopter all came over to get a view of the island.

The island was actually two islands, a very small island next to a significantly bigger one. The smaller island had a huge helipad that was big enough to accommodate two helicopters as there were two H signs with circles round them painted blue. There were also docks and a walkway leading out to a lighthouse just south of the helipad. To the east was a bridge that connected it to the larger island, which had a volcano that billowed smoke into the air right in the centre of the island. Everything north of the volcano was a brownish orange barren wasteland and south of the volcano was a lush green forest that spanned just about the entirety of the southern part of the island with the northern-most part climbing partway up the mountain that formed the volcano. However, looking closer at the lush side of the island, the students all noticed pathways as well as a lake that had two waterfalls falling into the sea at the south and east as well as what appeared to be a sparkling white mansion complex with a blue roof at the northern point of the lake and their was also a second mansion complex off to the eastern shore of the lake as well. There was also a beach on the east side with a pathway leading up to a grey building just of the forest/wasteland border next to the volcanic mountain. However, the most spectacular sight was the circular shaped building with the white domed roof built just in front of a huge rocky outcrop just north of the lake The building appeared wedged into the rocky outcrop and was surrounded by light brownish orange walls shaped like a square with two Egyptian style obelisks sticking up at each corner. The front of the circular building also had three dome-shaped dishes sticking out running diagonally downwards from left to right with the left disk blue, the middle dish yellow and the last dish red. Also the front wall had four tall white pillars running up it with the entrance between the two inner pillars and the pathway leading to the entrance had stone outcrops aligning either side and each stone had a different duel monster craved into it.

"A school right next to an active volcano?" one student said, feeling a bit nervous, "Are they serious?"

"I'm sure they have evacuation plans in place if the volcano does decide to erupt," a girl said, though her tone also had a hint of nervousness in it.

"Next stop, Duel Academy Island," the captain went on over the PA after the students had time to take in the sight of their new home, "Please fasten your seatbelt and sit in an upright position as we make our landing."

The students all did as they were told as they felt the helicopter start to descend.

"This is going to be great," Euphemia said as she fastened her seatbelt, "I'm already bursting with anticipation."

"Y-y-yeah… me to," Yumi said rather hesitantly, looking unsure of herself, causing Euphemia to give her a look of concern.

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><p>Later after the helicopter had landed, the new students were all gathered in a classroom in the circular building that was the main academy complex. The classroom itself was fairly big with the doors at the back and a semi-circular slope with desks running the length of each row and seats behind the desks. There were also two sets of steps leading from the top down to the bottom where the teacher's desk was and there was also a giant screen on the wall behind the teacher's desk that was a good few feet from the floor; in fact the screen looked level with the floor at the top of the classroom behind the slope.<p>

"Good morning, my students," a voice seemed to boom throughout the classroom as a bald man with greyish brown eyes and a greyish brown goatee and beard appeared on the screen, causing everyone to look up, "My name is Chancellor Sheppard and I'm the headmaster here."

He then paused as he flashed a bright welcoming smile at the new students.

"You are all the best and brightest duellists in the world," he then went on, resuming his speech, though the sound of someone rudely scoffing could be heard, "Now please proceed to your assigned dorms where you can settle in. I hope you find them quite comfortable; that is depending on your rank, of course."

He then let out a rather humorous chuckle as the screen switched off and the new students started to disperse.

"Everyone here is the best and brightest in the world?" Stella thought sarcastically as she stood where she was after scoffing at Sheppard's comment, "Don't make me laugh. I'm the only one worthy of the title, best and brightest and the rest of those pathetic maggots are just delusional wannabes."

She then turned to leave with her friends, Eileen and Hailey in tow when she noticed Euphemia and Yumi; both wearing Slifer Red blazers starting to make their way out.

"Well, well, it seems that the Pink-haired Floozy didn't get the necessary grades for a high rank," she thought as she raised her eyebrow in wonder before a sadistic smile etched itself onto the corners of her lips, "Well I think it's really appropriate considering who recommended her. She has a colour worthy of her rank and it's going to make destroying her all the sweeter when I teach her my philosophy and I'll prove that she's just a nameless nobody who only beat Dr Crowler through an amazing stroke of luck. You best make the most of your time here Slifer Whore because I can guarantee that it's not going to be a long one."

In truth, she had expected Euphemia to make it into Ra Yellow at least, but she was not in the least bit surprised that she had been assigned to Slifer Red. After all, in Stella's mind, Euphemia was just a nobody that was recommended by someone she saw as a cheat and believed that Euphemia deserved to be in Slifer Red as she was just someone who had gotten lucky.

* * *

><p>A little later, Euphemia and Yumi were both outside at the main entrance in their new clothing. Euphemia just had the same clothes she had on before, only her red blazer that was styled in the same manner as Jaden's minus the sleeves was worn over jumper. Yumi on the other had gotten a pair of red boots that went up to just below her knees with grey areas were her toes were and at the back where the heels of her feet were. She also had a pair of black shorts that went down to just above her knees; meaning that only her knees were exposed. She also had her belt and deck holder along with her V-neck short-sleeved shirt and her blazer over that and her blazer looked identical to Euphemia's.<p>

Anyway, James suddenly walked out, wearing a Ra Yellow blazer, Ra Yellow boots, blue jeans and a green shirt.

"Hey, J-Man," Euphemia greeted with a smile as she raised a hand to greet him, "So you're blazer's yellow, huh?"

"Uh huh, and the J-Man sees that you two have red blazers," James said as he smiled.

"Yep, so I guess you're in Ra Yellow and we're in Slifer Red," Euphemia said as she looked around, seeing all the students making their way to their assigned dorms.

James nodded just as Abigail and Terrance came out, making their way to the Ra Yellow Dorm.

"Hi there," Abigail greeted with a smile, causing the other three to turn their attention towards them, though Abigail seemed mainly focused on Euphemia, "You're the one who beat Dr Crowler, aren't you?"

"Yep," Euphemia said with a nod as Abigail extended her hand.

"Abigail Richardson," Abigail said as Euphemia took her hand and shook it.

"And I'm her older twin brother, Terrance," Terrance said in a polite tone with an equally polite smile, "We both saw you duel and met up with your friends then."

"Oh, is that so?" Euphemia said as she released Abigail's hand and then Terrance followed his sister's gesture and Euphemia took his hand in hers and shook it, "Really, we all had only just met back then."

"Yeah, that's what I said back then," Yumi said, speaking up as she managed to overcome her nervousness, "Did we really seem like long-time friends?"

"Yeah, actually, you kinda did," Terrance said as he released Euphemia's hand, "I saw you two talking before the duel and from the way you were talking, it was as if you had known each other for years."

Euphemia just let out a kind laugh and turned to make her way to the Slifer Red Dorm and gestured Yumi to follow.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Abigail, Terrance, I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of each other in the future," she said before she started to walk off with Yumi hurryingly following suit.

"You know, there's something about that girl," Terrance said after letting out a chuckle, "I don't know why, but I feel rather at ease round her; like I can just let go of all my troubles and be her friend."

"The J-Man agrees," James said as he looked off in the direction Euphemia and Yumi had gone off in.

"Yeah, I get that feeling to," Abigail said as James then started making his way towards the Ra Yellow Dorm, leaving the twins alone.

"Anyway, let's get down to business," Terrance said once he was sure that James was out of earshot, "I think we should start looking for clues as to the whereabouts of our cousin."

"Yes, though I just can't believe that he'd just disappear like that. I mean during his second year here, he leaves with his idol, Dr Eisenstein to help in his studies and then mysteriously vanishes in Eisenstein's laboratory only to reappear briefly back at Duel Academy only to disappear again," Abigail said as she thought about her lost cousin.

The Richardson twins had enrolled at Duel Academy to further their skills in Duel Monsters like most of the other students, though they originally wanted to enrol at South Academy, but the disappearance of their cousin, Bastion Misawa had caused them to change their minds as they wanted to know what had happened to him. They remembered how Bastion would always write to them during his stay at Duel Academy. During his first year, he had been very enthusiastic, especially after he witnessed Jaden Yūki defeat Dr Crowler and was rather thrilled at having some worthy competition, though he lost a duel to Jaden despite managing to prevent him from using fusion monsters, which had been a major strength of Jaden's deck, but that did not deter him as he had learned that Jaden knew how to improvise. However, come the second year, the twins remembered how Bastion's enthusiasm started to go downhill as he started complaining about how underappreciated he believed he was in the eyes of his peers. They remembered how Bastion had once told them that he had thrown a duel to join an organisation called the Society of Light, believing that he would finally be appreciated, but unfortunately he did not get appreciation from his fellows there eithe,r despite his best efforts to impress the organisation's leader, someone that both twins saw as a so-called precognitive fruitcake called Sartorius. However, after witnessing a duel between Eisenstein and Jaden, Bastion felt enlightened and followed Eisenstein to help him, but then there was some sort of accident in Eisenstein's laboratory and Bastion disappeared and the twins remembered hearing rumours how Duel Academy had mysteriously vanished as well in a similar manner and when it returned, Bastion was sighted on the island, but before anyone could begin to look into what had been going on, Bastion ended up going missing again along with several other students, though the majority of the students that had disappeared then all returned, apart from Bastion.

"You know, Abi, it's not the first case of students disappearing on this island," Terrance said as both twins had already started making their way towards the dorm, "Four years ago, it was rumoured that several students had gone missing from an old dorm and that Duel Academy tried to cover it up."

"Yeah, I heard of that, though I hear that only two of the students that disappeared reappeared; one three years ago and the other only reappeared last year," Abigail said, feeling a bit nervous, "You don't think there's something going on here, do you, Terry?"

"Who knows," Terrance said with a shrug as both twins continued walking.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Euphemia and Yumi had found the Slifer Red Dorn on a cliff overlooking the sea and needless to say, Yumi was not in the least bit impressed.<p>

"Is this a joke?" she complained as she saw what looked like a two-storey apartment building with only eight rooms; four on each floor with a small extension to the right and a set of stairs to the left that led up to the first floor, "Is this a dorm or a motel?"

"Well, Yumi, you take what you get," Euphemia said with a shrug, clearly not really caring about the accommodation standards, "Anyway, it's better than nothing."

"Yeah, I suppose," Yumi said with a submissive sigh.

Euphemia looked at Yumi and sighed.

"We're really going to have to do something about your confidence," she said as she gave her friend a sympathetic look.

"I know, I'm such a downer, aren't I?" Yumi said with a sigh, "I just can't help it. It's just that when I meet new people, I fear that they'll find something to ridicule me for and my duelling skills are downright pathetic. It's a miracle I'm even here. As I already told you, I only managed to win my entrance duel by a massive fluke, though I'm surprised you're here Euphie. I thought since Jaden Yūki recommended you here, you'd be in Obelisk Blue or Ra Yellow, not Slifer Red."

Euphemia just chuckled and placed her hand on top of Yumi's head and ruffled her hair.

"With my grades, I'm eligible for a place in Ra Yellow, though Jaden himself recommended that I be place here in Slifer Red and to be honest, I pretty much agree with him," she answered honestly in an uncaring tone, "I don't want to have anything handed to me without putting in the effort to earn it. Heck, those who basically have everything handed to them on a silver platter… it's like walking into a university and coming out with a degree without doing any work at all. Besides, I find the Obelisk Blue Dorm too classy for my tastes and prefer to start at the bottom; plus I simply just couldn't leave you to fend for yourself."

"Huh?" Yumi said in surprise, though she was rather touched that one of the reasons Euphemia chose Slifer Red was because of her, "You mean you passed up a higher dorm simply because of me?"

"Partially, yes," Euphemia admitted with a nod, "I noticed back at the Entrance Exams how you had problems opening up to people and decided that I wanted to help you overcome your problems. Not everyone's out to ridicule you, Yumi."

"Thanks, Euphie," Yumi said as she felt tears start to well up in her eyes; feeling rather touched that someone cared enough about her that they would want to help her.

Even her sister, Seika would not have offered her any help whatsoever and would have just told her to simply suck it up or let everyone walk all over her.

"Anyway, I think this is our room here," Euphemia said, changing the subject as she walked up the stairs to the first floor and walked till she was at the second door from nearest the staircase with Yumi following in toe and once she opened the door, she walked in. It was a rather small room with a three-person bunk bed at the far right corner with a pair of red boots; similar to the ones Yumi now wore sitting to the left of the ladder and a green curtain like sheet hung from the top bunk down the from of the middle and bottom bunks

Opposite the bed was a long desk and two chairs as well as a poster of Slifer the Sky Dragon pinned to the wall and looking to her right, Euphemia also noticed a rather small worktop with a metal kettle sitting to the right and a sink with a single tap with two valves at either side near the bottom of the tap; one for hot and the other for cold and above the worktop was a metal grill to the right and a light to the left and the cieling above the worktop was not as high as the cieling of the room. It was three feet above the worktop to be exact and underneath the worltop to the left was a small refrigerator with a huge wooden block at the right of the area underneath the worktop. Also, next to the bunk bed on the wall opposite the wall where the door was situated was a window at the far wall that had green curtains drawn over it and in the corner of the room to the door's right beside the front of the bunk bed was a three-self high bookcase with various books lining each shelf. There was also a three-legged circular stool next to the front of the bunk bed and in front of the bookcase.

"This looks pretty small," Yumi commented, clearly not happy with the room, "I've been in rundown motel rooms while vacationing in the States that were cleaner than this."

"Like I said before, you take what you get," Euphemia said simply, "It's better than nothing. At least we're not sleeping outside in tents."

She then let out a rather cheerful laugh and Yumi, surprisingly found herself laughing along with her. It was rather surprising how Yumi found that she could just let go and relax while in Euphemia's presence. Euphemia seemed to have that effect on her and she seemed to give off this aura of friendly gentleness that made it easy for people to befriend her. In fact with the aura she gave off, Yumi would not be surprised if people wanted to be Euphemia's friend.

"Yeah, though don't you think it's a bit weird?" Yumi found herself saying automatically, "You know, meeting up at the Entrance Exams and now we're roommates? You don't suppose that we're connected in a past life, do you, like you were once a beautiful princess and I was your loyally faithful servant, do you?"

She then fantasised Euphemia wearing an overly expensive white and purple dress (the one Euphemia wore at Suzaku's knighting ceremony and during the SAZ incident) and she was standing beside her wearing a white dress of her own; only not as expensive looking at Euphemia's.

"N-n-no o-o-o-offense, Yumi, but that just sounds lame," Euphemia responded with a hint of what Yumi could only interpret as fear in her voice, but then her voice started to sound cheerful again, "It's probably just coincidence, but nonetheless I'm not complaining. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Huh?" Yumi said questioningly, wondering what had caused Euphemia's brief change in mood, but then dismissed it as Euphemia seemed to recover relatively quickly, "Yeah, I'd probably be a lousy servant anyway."

"Don't put yourself down all the time," Euphemia said as she looked down at Yumi with a sad look on her face, though she did not know why, but the idea of her being a princess seemed somewhat right to her; like it was really true and for some reason it scared her, but she decided to put it to the back of her mind for the time being, "You really need to gain some courage, but enough about that, let's let in some sunshine."

She then walked over to the window and opened the curtains, letting in the sunshine, but unfortunately, the room had a third occupant who did not appreciate having the sunlight let into the room.

"Hey, I gather that you must be my new roommates, but I'll have you know that I had those closed for a reason," a female voice came from the top bunk, causing Euphemia and Yumi to jump in shock as they both looked up at the girl lying in the bed on her side.

What surprised the two new girls was that this girl looked so young; barely in her teens with long dark blue hair and big grey eyes. She wore long black socks that went up the length of her legs to a few inches above her knees, a black skirt with a brown belt that was positioned in a diagonal angle going upwards at the front from right to left and her deck-holder was attached to the belt at the back just above her right butt cheek. She also had a light orange V-neck shirt and her Slifer Red blazer was worn over it and looked identical to the ones that Euphemia and Yumi wore.

"Excuse me, but how old are you?" Euphemia asked, confused as to why someone so young was in their room.

"That's your first question, no who are you?" the girl said in a slightly annoyed tone before letting out a sigh as she rolled onto her back and moved into a sitting position, "I suppose everybody's different, aren't they? Anyway, my name's Blair, Blair Flannigan and I'm eleven-years-old."

"Eleven?" Yumi said in shock, unable to believe that someone so young had actually been allowed to attend Duel Academy, "Aren't you a bit young to be here?"

"Well, I'm a special case," Blair said, sounding a bit insulted as she glared at the nervous dark-haired brunette, "Two years ago, I was runner-up in the Genex Tournament that was held here and as a reward, I was given a place here, though the previous year, I disguised myself as a boy in order to get close to a student who's now left, Zane Truesdale."

"Okay…" Euphemia said with a rather hesitant nod as she and Yumi turned to look at one another in confusion before turning their attention back to Blair, "So I guess that makes you a Second-year, huh?"

"Uh huh," Blair said with a nod, "I was originally infatuated with Zane, so I disguised myself as a boy in order to get close to him, though I was placed in Slifer Red and he was in Obelisk Blue, so I snuck into his room, but unfortunately I wasn't careful enough and I was followed by none other than Jaden Yūki."

"Jaden Yūki, wasn't he the guy who recommended you here, Euphie?" Yumi said while looking at Euphemia and Euphemia nodded.

"Oh, so you're the girl that Jaden recommended come here?" Blair said as her eyes widened in surprise, "Well, this makes things interesting. Anyway, Jaden followed me and noticed that Zane and a few of his friends were on their way up to the room and in his haste to get me out, my secret was revealed and Jaden ended up duelling me and he won and although I was sent home, my infatuation changed to Jaden and then when I duelled Chazz the following year in the Genex Tournament, my infatuation changed to him then back to Jaden."

"Wow, you go through love interests like popcorn," Yumi said in surprise.

"Yeah, but Jaden's the only one I've ever returned to, though I have to say that his heart belongs to someone else," Blair said with a hint of sadness as she sighed.

"Listen, Jaden and I aren't…" Euphemia started to say rather hastily, believing that Blair was meaning her as that "someone else".

"No, not you," Blair said with a giggle, finding Euphemia's reaction rather amusing, "Her name is Alexis Rhodes, one of his former classmates who's now studying overseas to become a teacher. From what I hear, Alexis developed an interest in him quite early on during their first year, though they had a bit of a falling out last year, but they managed to patch things up."

"Gee, I wonder what their fight was about," Yumi said curiously.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, I introduced myself, now you two introduce yourselves," Blair said, wanting to move things along as it was clear that losing Jaden to Alexis was still a bit of a touchy subject for her and both Euphemia and Yumi sensed this and decided to play along.

"I'm Euphemia Felixton," Euphemia said with a smile.

"A-a-a-and I'm Y-Y-Yumi F-F-Fujiharu," Yumi stuttered, feeling nervous as she remembered her sister and how Seika was now the best female duellist in the academy since Alexis's graduation.

"Fujiharu, you wouldn't happen to be related to Seika Fujiharu, would you?" Blair said, staring at the nervous girl with a look of curiosity and Yumi could not help but tremble under the younger girl's gaze and desperately looked as if she was going to duck behind Euphemia.

"Seika, who's that?" Euphemia asked curiously.

"M-m-my o-o-o-onē-sama," Yumi stuttered in response, "S-s-she's now a third-year here at Duel Academy."

"Onē-sama's Japanese for big sister," Euphemia explained as she noticed Blair's confusion at Yumi's statement, "I know a little Japanese and from Yumi's statement, I'd have to say that Seika is her older sister."

"Seika Fujiharu, Third-year Obelisk Blue and now the best female duellist here at the academy," Blair said, giving her own answer to Euphemia's question as she accepted Euphemia's answer to her unspoken question, "Alexis was the best female duellist here when she was here, but now that she's graduated, her position goes to Seika and I have to say that she reminds me a lot of Zane when he was here. She's like a female version of Zane and if your reaction is anything to go by, Yumi, I say she has the same opinion of you as Zane had of his own little brother, Syrus when he first came here."

Yumi flinched at that comment and Euphemia took note of it.

"Seika," she thought as she pondered Yumi's situation, "Could she be the reason Yumi's so shy and terrified of everyone?"

"Anyway, since your new here, let me tell you how things work," Blair went on deciding to change the subject, seeing that Yumi was getting uncomfortable.

"Things work, what do you mean?" Euphemia said curiously, "Is it the about the dorm system because I already know about that."

"Yeah, me to," Yumi said, feeling a lot more at ease since Blair had dropped the subject of her sister, "Slifers are at the bottom, Ras are the next step up and then Obelisks are at the top."

"Yeah, you got that part of it, but let me go into detail about the full picture," Blair said as she lay back down on the bed and clasped her hands behind her head, "You see, the dorms represent a hierarchy here. As you know, the order of the dorms are as follows; Obelisk Blue, Ra Yellow and Slifer Red. Now Obelisk Blue students are the top ranking students. Some get in with really good grades while others get in through connections; you know, they're from wealthy families or their relatives have friends in high places… that sort of thing. Anyway, next you've got the Ra Yellow students. They're listed as kids with potential and then at the bottom of the barrel, you've got us, the Slifer Reds or as we're known throughout the school, the Red Wonders."

"Red Wonders?" Yumi said in wonder, "That doesn't sound so bad."

"Red Wonders as in when anyone else looks at us they point and say, "I wonder why rejects like them are even here"," Blair said, dashing Yumi's fantasy and surprising Euphemia, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as Slifers we're looked down on. We're seen as rejects and duelling duds. When Jaden was here, he pretty much blew that notion out of the water, but now that he's gone, that old superiority complex that the Obelisks possess has made a comeback. Last year I was promoted to Obelisk Blue, but when I noticed the superiority complex that many of the students still seemed to have, I decided to come back here. I couldn't stand it. Some of the students are now saying that Jaden was a cheater who only won his duels because he cheated somehow and that's just because of the colour of his coat."

Euphemia frowned at this, especially considering that it was Jaden who recommended that she come here.

"It mainly has to do with the Obelisk Blues," Blair went on with bitterness evident in her tone, "They think they own the place. The Ra Yellows just follow along because the Obelisks look down on everyone who isn't an Obelisk and since the Slifers are ranked lower than the Ras, the Ras deal with it by copying the Obelisks."

"Surely you're exaggerating," Euphemia said in a tone of disbelief, "Are you saying that all the students…?"

"No, not all of them," Blair said, shaking her head, "Jaden did manage to prove the colour system wrong and it did get through to the majority of them, but there's still a small stubborn minority that just can't take the fact that a Slifer Red managed to upstage them. I left Obelisk Blue because I just know that that small minority will bring this year's batch of new Obelisks round to their way of thinking, just increasing their numbers and I absolutely refuse to be surrounded by people who believe that they're the greatest thing that's ever lived just because of the colour of their blazer."

"Well, I'm going to prove that notion wrong," Euphemia said with a look of determination on her face, "Jaden and Yūgi both warned me about people like that and if I end up losing, it won't be because of the colour of their coat. It'll be because they're naturally better than me."

Yumi and Blair both looked at Euphemia in surprise.

"I'd be careful if I were you," Blair cautioned with a look of worry on her face, "Some of those students can be pretty brutal."

"Okay," Euphemia said as she turned to leave, but turned her head back to Blair, "Yumi and I are going to go and explore, is that okay?"

"Sure," Blair said with a shrug, "I'm not your boss, but please be careful and don't go looking for arrogant Obelisks to duel."

"We won't," Euphemia said, shaking her head, "I don't agree with what you've told us, but I'm not someone who goes out looking for trouble. If we run into any Obelisks, we'll just steer clear of them."

Yumi nodded and then followed after Euphemia.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, while Euphemia and Yumi were talking with Blair, Terrance, Abigail and James had all made it to the Ra Yellow Dorm, which looked more like a relatively average hotel not far from the main academy complex. It had light greenish yellow walls and a green roof on the outside and had a huge window above the entrance. Anyway, once there, Terrance and James parted ways with Abigail, who went off on her own to find her own room.<p>

"So… J-Man, was it?" Terrance said as he turned to look at James questioningly, finding it strange that the other went liked to be addressed by a strange alias.

"Yeah, the J-Man prefers it when people call him J-Man," James said in a boastful tone filled with pride.

"Your real name's James Jonah Jamison, isn't it?" Terrance asked politely.

"Uh huh, what of it?" James replied in an uncaring tone with a dismissive shrug.

"I was just wondering why you don't call yourself Triple J instead," Terrance said in a curious tone.

"Not cool enough," James replied simply with a tone of finality, letting the other boy know that that was all he was saying.

"Okay, fair enough," Terrance said in somewhat reluctant acceptance before changing the subject, "Anyway, it seems that we're going to be roommates."

"Yes, the J-Man agrees," James said with an uncaring shrug, "Is there a problem with that?"

Terrance shook his head.

"No, not at all, it's just that I'll be working a lot on my laptop and I'd prefer not to be disturbed while I'm working," he explained and James just shrugged.

"No problem, the J-Man won't be in the room most of the time anyway," he said simply, "The J-Man will only be in the room during curfew and that's that and even then; I'll try not to brother you."

They both then continued to walk towards their assigned room.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Abigail had walked to her room and was currently standing outside it looking at a slip of paper she had in her hand.<p>

"Okay, Room 5-C, I guess this is it," she said as she reached for the handle and walked in after opening the door and found a two-person bunk bed at the far left corner of the room and a long desk with two chairs at the far right opposite the bed.

There was also a cupboard next to the desk as well as a waste bin right next to the seat nearest the window, which was at the far wall between the bed and desk.

"It'll do," she said with a sigh, not really happy with the room, but deciding to make the most of it.

"Room 5-C," a voice came from behind her causing her to jump, "Here it is and I gather that you're my roommate."

Abigail turned round and studied the girl that had startled her. Aside from wearing an identical Ra Yellow girl's uniform, she also had a pair of earrings with turquoise coloured diamond shapes and golden circles surrounding them. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and reddish brown eyes.

"Roommate, yeah," Abigail said as she put on a fake welcoming smile while inwardly cursing her luck.

It was the main reason she did not like the room. She did not want a roommate and had taken an immediate dislike to the room when she saw the bunk bed. The reason she did not want a roommate was because she wanted to get to work on finding out what happened to Bastion and saw the presence of a roommate as a major hindrance as her quest with her brother was to be conducted in secret. This girl's presence complicated matters, but for now, she decided that it was best to make the most of it.

"I'm Alicia Riverton," the girl said in an excitedly enthusiastic tone as she extended her hand out to Abigail.

"Abigail Richardson," Abigail said as she took Alicia's hand and shook it with a smile.

"Wow, that's so cool, our names start with the same letters," Alicia said as she jumped up and down like an excited three-year-old, "Abigail, Alicia and Richardson, Riverton, what are the chances."

"Yeah, imagine that," Abigail said with a rather unenthusiastic laugh, trying to be friendly towards Alicia, though anyone could tell by her tone that she was merely faking it.

"Great, not only do I have a roommate, but she just happens to be on a massive sugar high," she thought as an expression of dissatisfaction washed over her face.

However, fortunately for her, Alicia was too excited to notice as she looked around with a rather childish expression on her face, looking like a toddler having a great time at the fair.

"I know, I'm going to call you, Red, on account of your reddish hair," Alicia said as she turned to face Abigail, who had a look of pure shock on her face as she was stunned at Alicia's declaration.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Euphemia and Yumi had walked down the pathway near the sea on the west side of the island and had now entered the main academy complex. They were now walking down a corridor that seemed to curve. However, Yumi just could not help but tremble as she remembered what Blair had said about the attitude towards the Slifers from everyone else.<p>

"I don't know about this, Euphie, are you sure we're allowed here?" she said, looking ready to dive behind her at any given minute.

"Of course we're allowed here, we are students here, aren't we?" Euphemia replied in a carefree tone, "I'm sure if we weren't allowed here, someone would have told us already."

"But you remember what Blair said, don't you?" Yumi said in an increasingly frightened tone, "We Slifers are at the bottom of the food chain. Everyone else walks all over us and maybe even uses us to vent out their frustrations."

"Well if anyone tries that with me, I'll just have to remind them that they're only human just like us," Euphemia replied dismissively with a wave of her hand, "I know the type. They're so good they think they're invincible and live in their own little fantasy world. They seem to forget that professionals start off as amateurs; that they were amateurs at one point, but they've gotten so used to winning that they think they'll win all the time. Well, if anyone like that challenges me, I'll be more than happy to bring them back down to Earth. "

They then came to a crossroad with one way leading off ahead, one way leading off to the right and the last way leading off to the left, though the destination to the last pathway could clearly be seen along with two Obelisk Blue girls. Euphemia turned to go off to the left and almost immediately walked into a huge room with a circular duelling field in the centre and rows of seats circling the entire length of the room. The two Obelisk Blue girls; a curly-haired orangette and a short-haired brunette looked in their direction and immediately shot them both nasty looks, making Yumi dive behind Euphemia, grasping her at the sides as if she were a tree.

"Hey, this is Obelisk Blue turf," the orangette said in a snide unwelcoming tone, "No Slifer Sluts allowed, so beat it."

"Yeah, see that symbol up there," the brunette said, pointing at a grey circle mounted atop the entranceway to the main stadium, which had Obelisk the Tormentor carved into it, "That means that only we're allowed here, so get lost."

"Sure, no problem," Yumi said without hesitation as she immediately turned to leave, but Euphemia grabbed her wrist, preventing her from leaving as she glared at the two girls.

"Now, hold on a second," she said in a furiously defiant tone, "I realise what you're saying, but who says we're not allowed here?"

The two girls looked at Euphemia with widened eyes, stunned at her defiance and they both turned to look at one another before turning back to glare at Euphemia.

"Just who the Hell do you think you are?" the orangette said in an outraged tone, not happy that a "Slifer Loser" had dared challenge their authority, "We say so."

"But you're not faculty," Euphemia pointed out simply, "You're students just like us."

"Euphie, let's just go," Yumi pleaded as she looked at the two Obelisk girls with a look of fear.

"You should do as your friend says," the brunette said with a rather smug look on her face, "Because if you don't then there's gonna be trouble."

"We might not be faculty members but when it comes to Slifer Rejects like yourselves, it doesn't matter," the orangette boasted as she placed her hands on her hips and shot the two Slifer girls a boastful smirk.

Euphemia just shook her head, though she turned to leave.

"It's sad just how delusional you two really are," she said with a sigh displaying pity, "But if you want us gone, then so be it. We've better things to do with our time anyway."

Yumi let out a sigh of relief and the two Obelisks looked ready to explode with anger at Euphemia's statement as in their minds, she was dismissing them as if they were inferior. The orangette opened her mouth to speak, but she almost immediately shut it when she saw a girl with long teal-coloured hair and rather cruel looking greyish blue eyes that caused her to shiver walk in from the way the two Slifers had come.

"Well, well, isn't this a strange get-together," the teal-haired girl commented as she came to a stop a few feet away from Euphemia, "Eileen, Hailey, don't tell me that you've both decided to go slummin' with the rejects."

"Oh no, Stella," the orangette, Eileen said in a hurriedly fearful tone, "They were the ones who came here."

"That's right, it's true, I swear it," the brunette, Hailey said in an equally fearful tone, "And the pink-haired loser had the audacity to address us as if we were inferior."

"We were just leaving actually," Yumi said in a rather panicky tone, not liking the look in this Stella girl's eyes as they seemed to ooze out sadistic malice.

"Well, the Pink-haired Floozy here did beat Dr Crowler," Stella said dismissively, waving it off, "So I guess it's not surprising that she thinks she's something."

"Oh yeah, I totally forget about that," Eileen said as Hailey nodded in agreement.

"But, it could've just been a stroke of good luck," Stella added simply.

Euphemia just shrugged.

"If you say so," she said as she started to walk past Stella, causing Stella's eyes to widen in shock.

"What?" she said before she got in front of Euphemia and blocked her path, much to Yumi's panicking dismay, "Now hold on a minute, do you know just who on Earth you're dealing with here?"

There was a hint of anger in her tone; anger that this Floozy was daring to ignore her and that was something she just could not stand; people ignoring her when she was talking to them.

"No, should I?" Euphemia said simply with an uncaring shrug and Stella looked as if she was going to explode right there and then, but fortunately she took a few deep breaths and managed to calm herself down.

"Hey, you show the proper respect, Slifer Sludge," Eileen called out to Euphemia, "You may have fluked your way by Dr Crowler, but don't think that means your something because you're not."

"That's right," Hailey spoke up in agreement, "That is Stella Harrington and she was the best female duellist during her time at Duel Monsters Prep School. Only two boys scored higher than her, so I'd watch it if I were you."

Stella looked up at Hailey and glared at her, not happy about her last comment about the two boys who had outdone her and Hailey's hands immediately flew up over her mouth as she realised her mistake and knew that Stella was not going to let her off easy. Eileen just looked at her friend with a look of concern as she knew just what sort of cruel person Stella could be whenever she dished out punishments.

"Anyway, they are right, I'm the number one female duellist from prep school," the cruel teal-haired girl said as she turned her attention back to Euphemia, "So I suggest you show me the proper respect, you Pink-haired Floozy. I'm going to be Queen of Games someday and I'm going to spread my philosophy throughout the world."

"Well, good luck with that," Euphemia said simply as she moved to walk by Stella, but Stella moved to block her way again.

"Hey, now wait just one minute here, do you honestly think that I'm just going to let you go?" she said with a sadistic smirk that caused Yumi to tremble as she saw something dangerous burning with the sadistic girl's eyes.

Euphemia just sighed and shook her head.

"I take it that you're wanting to duel me, is that right?" she said with a sigh of annoyance.

"Euphie, don't do it," Yumi warned as she looked back and forth between Stella and Euphemia, feeling rather intimidated by Stella's mere presence as she sensed something malicious about her and it was not the usual desire for one duellist to defeat an opponent they saw as inferior and then rub it in their face; this was something far more violent, threatening and perhaps even evil as well, "There's something not right about this girl."

"At least the Jap-Whore knows her place," Stella boasted as she shot Yumi a maliciously frightening smile, "I hear your big sister's the big female duellin' champ 'round here. Boy she must really hate being related to a loser like you."

"That's enough!" Euphemia stated with a fiercely enraged glare, furious that Stella had referred to her friend as a "Jap-Whore" since the word, Jap was an abbreviation of the word, Japanese and many Japanese had come to regard it as a derogatory insult, "I won't have you insulting my friend like that. Are we going to duel or not?"

Stella looked somewhat taken aback by the fury in Euphemia's tone, clearly not expecting her to be so fierce and Yumi was also surprised that Euphemia was so furious at Stella for insulting her and she found herself wondering if Euphemia had witnessed racism before. She seemed so fiercely opposed to Stella's racist comment that it was as if she had had had a friend who had suffered at the hands of racists and she did not agree with it.

"Not right now, I had come here to fetch those two so we can get to the Obelisk Welcome Dinner, so I don't have time right now," Stella said with a disappointed sigh once she had recovered from her shock and regained her composure, "But we will duel afterwards, right here at midnight, got it?"

"Yeah," Euphemia said with a nod, "I got it. Here at midnight."

Stella then turned and started to walk away as Eileen and Hailey started to follow her, but she suddenly stopped when she reached the edge of the slope that led down into the corridor and then turned her head and glanced back at Euphemia.

"Oh and by the way, you best head back to your dorm since there's a welcome dinner for you losers as well," she said as she flashed a wicked smile that cause Yumi to tremble before turning back to face the front and started to walk with Eileen and Hailey in tow.

"Euphie, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Yumi asked with fear clearly evident in her voice, "I mean that girl… just by looking at her I can tell she's a brutal duellist and I think she means to destroy you."

"I'm not worried," Euphemia said with a shake of her head, "She can try all she wants, but even if she wins, I won't let it get me down."

"Well, you're very brave," a new voice came causing the two Slifer girls to turn and look behind them.

Walking over to them was a boy with a dark skin-tone, messy brown hair and gentle green eyes wearing an Obelisk Blue blazer.

"Either that or you're just being stupid," the boy went on, though Euphemia did open her mouth to protest, but immediately stopped herself when she laid eyes on him, "Your friend's right. Stella is as brutal as they come when it comes to duelling."

"Wait, I've seen you before," Yumi said as her eyes widened in shock as she remembered seeing this boy at the Entrance Exams, "You were the guy standing next to my sister at the Entrance Exams."

"Suzaku?" Euphemia blurted out with a mixture of shock, curiosity and confusion in her voice as the name seemed to leave her mouth automatically, causing Yumi and the boy to stare at her questioningly.

"Euphie, you know him?" Yumi asked as she glanced back at the boy questioningly and saw that the boy looked rather pale; as if he had just seen a ghost.

However, he almost immediately recovered and shook his head as he regained his composure.

"No, my name is Zukasu, Zukasu Rikuguru," he introduced as he extended his hand to Euphemia and Euphemia took it in hers, though just looking at her, Yumi knew that she was running on autopilot.

"Sorry," Euphemia apologised after she recovered, but then her expression became one of confusion, "What did I call you again?"

"Suzaku, which is coincidentally an anagram of Zukasu," Zukasu said with a dismissive laugh, "And you are?"

"Euphemia Felixton," Euphemia said, dismissing her black-out in which she seemed to just say the name, Suzaku, which she genuinely could not remember doing.

"Yumi Fujiharu," Yumi spoke up and Zukasu nodded.

"Yeah, you're Seika's sister, aren't you?" he said curiously and Yumi nodded with a saddened sigh, believing that Zukasu was going to ridicule her for not living up to her sister's expectations.

"Hey, I didn't mean to upset you," Zukasu said with a frown as he noticed Yumi's downcast look, "That Seika's pretty much impossible to impress. When your friend here beat Dr Crowler, she just walked off and was not impressed in the slightest."

"Really?" Euphemia said as she raised an eyebrow, once again wondering if this Seika was the reason behind Yumi's inferiority complex.

"Anyway, I couldn't help but notice your confrontation with Stella," Zukasu said, deciding to change the subject as he remembered why he had come over to the girls in the first place, "Like I said, you're either pretty brave or just plain stupid."

"And what makes you say that?" Euphemia asked curiously as she initially opened her mouth to protest, but changed her words when she realised that Zukasu's tone was full of concern and not prideful boasting.

"I was one of the two boys who managed to outdo her while we were in Duel Monsters Prep School," Zukasu replied with a stern look on his face, "Yes; we attended prep school together, though we were far from friends. As I said before, when it comes to duelling; Stella's rather brutal as she doesn't just defeat her opponents and boasts about it. She goes out of her way to psychologically traumatise and brutalise anyone who's unlucky enough to duel her. Every single person she duelled in the past ended up giving up on Duel Monsters and pulled out and I hear quite a few of them ended up in mental institutions."

"But why would she do that?" Yumi asked as her eyes widened in fearful shock as she remembered that Euphemia had agreed to duel her.

"I don't know for sure, but I think it's because she thinks it's fun," Zukasu said with disgust clearly evident in his voice as he shook his head in revulsion, remembering many of Stella's victims he had seen in the past, "I don't even want to know what's going through that twisted head of hers, but she seems to get pleasure out of ruining good duellists and to make matters worse, her family's highly influential, which is why she's never been expelled."

"What?" Euphemia said in shock, "You mean, she's been allowed to get away with it because of her family?"

Zukasu nodded.

"Yeah, the Harrington Family hail from Chelmsford, a town in the Essex region of Great Britain," he started to explain, "They're of an upper-class family and have immense global influence in the world of Duel Monsters. The prep school we both went to… heck most of the board of directors are under the Harrington Family's payroll. There were a few members of staff that did bring Stella's behaviour up, but when nothing was done, they took it further and ended up losing their jobs because of it. I wouldn't even be surprised if the Harrington Family have influence here as well."

"That's scary," Yumi said fearfully as she started to tremble, "It's scary to think that she can get away with doing things like that just because of her family's influence."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Zukasu said with a sigh as he shook his head, "And it's not just Stella's victims, but their entire families as well. Many of the victims' families also tried to deal with Stella, but ended up falling into financial ruin; in fact, anyone who messes with the Harrington Family either falls to financial ruin or in some cases, end up dead under mysterious circumstances."

Yumi gulped as she turned to face Euphemia with a look of concern.

"Anyway, Stella was right about one thing though," Zukasu spoke again before Yumi had the chance to open her mouth, "Each dorm has a welcoming dinner for its first-year students and it's almost time for them to begin, so I'd get going if I were you."

"Oh yeah, thanks, Zukasu," Euphemia said as she remembered what Stella had said before she left.

"Don't worry about this whole hierarchy thing that the dorms have," Zukasu said with a laugh, "Not all us Obelisks are like that."

"Yeah, Blair said as much," Euphemia said as she and Yumi started to run out of the arena.

"But she didn't say anything about a welcoming dinner," Yumi said, feeling a bit miffed at Blair.

"Either she didn't know or it just slipped her mind," Euphemia replied with a dismissive shrug.

Zukasu watched them both go, though he could not help but wonder about Euphemia. She had called him Suzaku when she first laid eyes on him and that worried him. The name, Suzaku did sound a bit familiar and it had been clear to him that Euphemia clearly recognised him. Of course, it could just have been that he resembled this Suzaku character and as much as he wanted to just write it off as that, he found that he just could not. Like he had said, Suzaku was an anagram of his own name and the fact that Euphemia seemed not to remember saying it; he did not know why, but he knew that Euphemia had been truthful, plus the sense of familiarity he had in regards to Euphemia only served to peek his concern even more. Euphemia seemed to have the same sense of familiarity with him as he had of her; he had seen it in her eyes and it only served to confuse him.

"Oh boy, this is all just too strange," he thought, shaking his head as he walked out of the arena, deciding to make his way to the welcoming dinner.

However, if he had looked behind him, he would have noticed Jaden standing behind the seats on the floor opposite where he had left and Jaden had an uncharacteristic look of pure seriousness etched on his face as he stared at the arena entrance where Zukasu just left. However, he just remained silent and turned to walk towards the nearest exit from where he had been standing.

* * *

><p>At the Obelisk Blue Dorm, which was the mansion-like house by the lake on the northern shore, the welcoming dinner was in full swing, though it looked more like a ball with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, expensive looking gourmet food that many people associated with rich folk, punch bowls and classical music could clearly be heard in the background as a group of musicians played away in a corner of the room. In short, it looked like the sort of party that aristocrats would go to. One could easily mistake it for a party being held due to a special occasion. Dr Crowler, who was the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue Dorm as well as being in charge of the Boys' Dorm held up a glass of punch as he declared a toast just as Zukasu happened to walk in after coming back from the arena where he had met Euphemia and Yumi.<p>

* * *

><p>The headmistress of the Obelisk Blue Girls' Dorm, which was situated in the second manion-like house on the eastern shore of the lake, Fonda Fontaine raised a glass of wine as she declared a toast, watching all the First-year girls go about their business and having fun. The girls' welcoming dinner was separate from the boys' in that both the boys and girls' dorms were two completely separate buildings as it had been decided that the boys and girls could not mix during the welcoming dinner due to the presence of alcoholic beverages and fears what the students what get up to if they were to fall into a drunken state, though it was only the over eighteens that were allowed alcohol, but some of the younger students did manage to sneak a few drinks. Fonda then noticed three girls make their way in the entrance, having just arrived and her eyes narrowed as she noticed the teal-haired girl who apparently was in the lead; knowing who she was and to be frank; she clearly disapproved of this girl due to her record at Duel Monsters Prep School and how everyone she had duelled there had all become so traumatised that they pulled out and gave up on Duel Monsters.<p>

"I don't want you here, Stella Harrington," she thought bitterly, though she knew complaining would do no good since Stella's family had influence within Duel Academy; influence that ran higher than Chancellor Sheppard.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Dorm, all the boys sat down at a rectangular table draped in a white tablecloth with the headmaster, Professor Sartyr sitting at the head. The food was not as great at the food in the Obelisk Blue Dorm, but it was still pretty good and looked like the sort of food one would find at a fancy restaurant and if that was not enough; Sartyr had cooked it all himself. Aside from Duel Monsters, he was also a great chef and his deck was based on food.<p>

"To Ra," a boy said as they all lifted their cups as the boy that spoke declared a toast.

"To Ra," the others all repeated unison.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the dorm, the girls were arranged in a similar fashion to the boys with the new Ra Headmistress sitting at the head of the table. She was a fairly short woman with long brown hair with bleach-blonde streaks running downwards, giving a striped appearance and she also had eyes that were so dark that it was impossible to distinguish their exact colour. It was clear that she was heavily into Japanese culture as she wore a pair of Japanese style sandals with white tabi socks and a bright yellow kimono with a white sash and a thick lighter shade of yellow outline. She wore a white blazer with a yellow shoulder band, but unlike the other girls' blazers, this one had sleeves.<p>

"Hello girls," she greeted with a bright friendly smile, "Konichiwa, my name is Reina Shizuki and I am the new headmistress of the new girls' dorm here, but to you, I'm just Professor Shizuki or Shizuki-sensei if you prefer."

The girls all started listening to Reina as she started to speak, though Abigail was feeling rather uncomfortable as her roommate, Alicia sat rather close to her; a bit too close for Abigail's liking. It was not like Alicia was doing anything out of the ordinary since all she was doing was jumping up and down excitedly in her chair, but she was a bit close to Abigail and Abigail felt as if her personal space had been invaded.

"Please get me away from this sugar-high nut," she thought with a groan of disapproval.

"As you know, up until last year, if you were a girl, it was an automatic ticket to Obelisk Blue," Reina said as she started to explain her presence here, "All girls ended up going into Obelisk Blue regardless of their grades, but it became apparent that some of them just weren't up to Obelisk Blue standards and with one girl two years ago wanting a place in the Slifer Red Dorm, it was decided that each dorm should have designated spots for both boys and girls, though this extension to the Ra Yellow Dorm was already under construction since the beginning of the last year. So now, each dorm has its fair share of both boys and girls."

The girls all nodded, though some of them seemed rather miffed with the arrangement; clearly expecting to get into Obelisk Blue by default.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the Slifer Red Dorm in the small extension at the side, which was the dining hall, almost all of the students were not happy with their food. There were two rows of wooden tables with wooden square stools with the wood at the top being a dark reddish brown colour at each side and on the tables were trays with a plate of rice and sardines along with a few sauces. All in all, it was downright abysmal and rather off-putting and unlike the previous two dorms, the boys and girls were together as the school had not gotten round to building the new section of the dorm yet.<p>

"Is this Duel Academy's idea of a joke?" one boy said in a clearly outraged tone, "What is this garbage?"

"You think they'll let us order take-out from the mainland?" a girl asked curiously.

"How should I know?" the boy who had started complaining said, feeling rather annoyed.

"Check out our headmaster," another boy said as he nudged his head to the right corner of the room at the entrance, "It's a big-ass dog."

Surely enough, lying in the corner curled up was a grey Great Dane that seemed to be sleeping rather peacefully.

"Nah, it's probably just our headmaster's pet," a girl said, shrugging off the dog's presence.

That comment proved to be right as in walked a man with short brown hair and grey eyes. He wore black shoes, grey trousers with a black belt, a white shirt and a grey tie and also had golden ring round his right middle finger.

"Good evening everyone," he greeted with a hand raised in a friendly gesture and his tone had this polite friendly edge to it and he flashed a smile, "I'm your new headmaster here at Slifer, Professor Thomas Arenson. Now as you are probably already aware, the school has decided to assign separate sections of the dorms to boys and girls instead of just Obelisk Blue, but unfortunately, the construction workers have not gotten round to constructing the new Slifer section yet, so in the meantime, boys and girls will be staying in the same section, but in different rooms until the new section is built. Now, all that we need to do now is wait for my wife, the headmistress for the girls and we can start with the introductions."

"Excuse me, Arenson-sensei," Yumi said from the table on the left; third from the back where she sat with Euphemia as she raised her hand, "But is this all the food there is?"

Professor Arenson frowned at this, though he had to agree with the Japanese girl.

"Hey, come on, Yumi, lighten up," Euphemia said dismissively, making it clear that she was not in the least bit put off by the lacking quality of the food, "Like I said before; take what you get because it's a lot better than nothing."

"Quite," Arenson agreed with a nod and a smile.

Just then, a woman came through the entrance panting for breath.

"Sorry… I'm… pant… late… huff…" she panted with a hand over her chest, "I just… wheeze… I just lost track… of time."

"So nice you can join us, Sophia," Arenson said in a mockingly scolding tone.

"Oh, Tom, you're terrible," the woman, Sophia giggled as she playfully punched him in the upper arm.

Sophia had shoulder-length dark reddish brown hair (think Kallen) and sparkling aqua-blue eyes. She wore a pair of brown hiking boots with white socks, a pair of brownish white khaki shorts with a brown leather belt with a black buckle, a blue V-neck short-sleeved shirt with the collar folded outwards and a Slifer Red blazer with only the button on the shoulder band buttoned up and her arms were not in the sleeve-holes, giving the impression that she was wearing it like a cape. She also had a golden ring on her right middle finger and a pair of purple-orbed short earrings.

"Anyway," she went on, turning her attention to the students, "I'm the new headmistress here for you girls, Sophia Arenson and if you haven't already guessed, Tom here is my husband."

She then paused and then looked over at the dog that was still sleeping in the corner.

"And this is Greyfang, our pet dog," she finished with a smile.

* * *

><p>A bit later after the introductions, Euphemia and Yumi returned to their room and found Blair still lying on the top bunk, looking up at the ceiling. She briefly glanced at the two older girls as they came in, but then went back to looking up at the ceiling.<p>

"Hey, Blair, we're back," Yumi said as she made her way to the worktop to the left of the door.

Blair just shrugged in disinterest.

"By the way, you never mentioned that we had a welcoming dinner," Euphemia said as she sat down on the bottom bunk, effectively claiming it.

"Sorry about that, it must've slipped my mind," Blair apologised, though from the sound of her tone one would have mistakenly believed that she did not mean it as it sounded as if she was not bothered,, but if the other two girls had come to that mistaken conclusion, then they choose to ignore it.

"Hey, Euphie, I'm going to make some cocoa, want some?" Yumi asked as she started working away.

"Oh, yes please," Euphemia said, licking her lips.

"Blair?" Yumi said as she turned her head and glanced up at the top bunk questioningly.

"No thanks, I'm not thirsty," Blair said with more enthusiasm than before, "Oh, now that you mention the welcoming dinner, I also realised that I forgot to mention that this was Jaden's room during his time here, that's why I chose to be here after I left Obelisk Blue."

"Wow, so this was Jaden's room?" Euphemia said as her eyes widened in shock; clearly not expecting to have been assigned her mentor's old room, though she wondered if Jaden himself had a hand in it.

"Wow, now I feel like I'm not worthy of being here," Yumi said in awe.

"Nonsense, Syrus Truesdale was the similar to you as far as inferiority complexes go when he first came here," Blair said dismissively, "Like you he felt like he was in the shadow of his older brother just like I'm guessing you feel that you're in your sister's shadow."

"Sister's shadow," Euphemia said to herself as she started to drift into her own little world, "Why does that seem so familiar?"

"Hey, Euphie, can I ask you something?" Yumi asked, glancing over at the pinkette curiously.

"Ask away," Euphemia said, indicating that she heard her.

"When we met Zukasu earlier, why did you call him Suzaku?" Yumi asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"To be perfectly honest with you, I have no idea," Euphemia replied and from the sound of it, Yumi could tell that, not only was she being truthful, but she was also asking herself that same question, "In fact, I don't really remember saying the name, Suzaku, but for some reason, the name seems right for him."

"Zukasu, who's that?" Blair asked curiously as she got up into a sitting position.

"Oh, Zukasu Rikuguru," Yumi said with an uncaring shrug, "He's an Obelisk Blue who doesn't think he's the greatest thing since sliced beard as well as a graduate from Duel Monsters Prep School. Euphie here just looked at him and called him Suzaku for some reason."

"And I don't know why, nor do I remember saying that name," Euphemia added, clearly questioning herself, "But for some reason that name fits him like a glove now that I think about it."

"Well maybe you knew each other in a past life or something," Yumi said in a dismissive tone, "Maybe you were a princess and he was your bodyguard or something."

Euphemia opened her mouth to reply, feeling a bit frightened as for some strange reason, Yumi's comment did seem to make a lot of sense to her. She envisioned herself as a princess with Zukasu standing alongside her in an expensive white suit and for some reason; he had a lighter skin-tone. However, before the words left her mouth, she was interrupted as a beeping sound was heard from the inside of her blazer. She then reached inside her blazer to an inside pocket on the left hand side and pulled out a PDA with the Duel Academy logo on it and realised that someone was calling her, so she pushed the answer button and then Stella appeared on the screen with a sadistic grin.

"Just thought I'd remind you of our duel, you Pink-haired Floozy," Stella said in a boastful tone, "I got a bit worried that you'd forget, so I decided to give you a call. Oh and don't think of chickening out 'cause if you do, I'm gonna hunt you down till I find you and then I'm going to send you to the nearest loony bin. Oh wait, I'm gonna do that anyway."

She let out a rather sadistic laugh, causing Yumi to shiver as she overheard what the sadistic girl had said.

"You're not going to go, are you, Euphie?" she asked as she turned round to stare at Euphemia, who now had a look of determination on her face, "Remember what Zukasu said about her? She's gonna psychologically brutalise you."

"I'd listen to her if I were you," Blair said, speaking up with seriousness in her tone, "I've heard of this girl, Stella Harrington, and if you're going to duel her, you might as well write your will because chances are, you'll be spending the rest of your life in a nuthouse."

"Stella doesn't scare me," Euphemia said as she got up off the bed and retrieved her new duel disk that the academy had given her, which was identical to Jaden's and even had the red markings, indicating that she was in Slifer Red.

She then made her way towards the door with Yumi, dropping what she was doing as she decided to follow her.

"Oh boy," Blair said with a sigh as she shook her head, "I hope that girl knows what she's doing. Even if she somehow manages to win, I just know that she'll be setting herself up for a world of Hell from the Harrington Family and they're enemies you most certainly don't want to have."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Abigail met up with Terrance and James outside the Ra Yellow Dorm and the three of them started walking towards the main academy building.<p>

"Hi, Abi," Terrance greeted as they started to walk and Abigail walked along-side her brother to his left and James walked at his right, "So, how'd things go?"

"Not that well," Abigail said with a frustrated groan, "I have a roommate who seems to be on a constant sugar-high. God, I just had to get away from her before she drove me insane."

"Well, turns out that the J-Man's your brother's roommate," James said with a laugh, "He already laid out some ground-rules since he told me that he'll be working a lot, but not to worry; the J-Man will be gone most of the time anyway."

"Gee, Terry, you're so lucky," Abigail said, feeling a bit jealous after hearing James's statement, "Trying to get my roommate to leave me alone is like trying to negotiate with a brick wall. She's too into her own little fantasy world to listen. I wouldn't be surprised if she still hasn't noticed I'm gone."

"Wow, looks like you drew the short straw," James commented before getting a look from the bespectacled girl, "Sorry, no offence."

"I suppose in a way, you're right," Abigail replied with a sigh before deciding to change the subject, "So, where are we headed?"

"Well, the J-Man thought that he'd go and look for Euphie 'n' Yumi seeing how all the welcomes are out of the way," James said with some anticipation as he wanted to see the two girls again, "I don't know about you guys though."

"I thought I'd just come with you," Terrance said simply, "I also want to see this Euphemia girl. I don't know why, but it feels like because of her, we've all seemed to become close-knit friends."

"Yeah, I get that feeling to," Abigail said as she realised that she was not in the least bit put off by James's presence despite the fact that she and her brother were usually quite wary while around strangers.

James opened his mouth to reply, but then noticed Euphemia walking into the entrance of the academy building with Yumi chasing after her and though they could not hear what she was saying; they understood that Yumi sounded quite distressed and concerned.

"Now what do you suppose that's about?" Abigail said questioningly.

"Don' know, but did you notice that Euphie had a duel disk?" James said with a puzzled look on his face and both the Richardson twins nodded in response.

"You don't suppose she's going to duel, do you?" Terrance asked, though the three of them knew the answer to that.

"But what has Yumi so distressed?" Abigail said with a voice full of concern.

"Euphie's opponent, that's who," a new voice answered, causing the three Ras to turn their attention to their right and they saw a dark-skinned boy with messy brown hair and gentle green eyes walking towards them.

This put them on edge as he was wearing an Obelisk Blue blazer and the three of them had since learned what the colour coded hierarchy entailed.

"Hey relax, I may be an Obelisk, but I'm not with the crowd that live the delusion that they're gods among men," the boy said, bringing his hands up in defence as he noticed their wary looks, "My name is Zukasu Rikuguru and I met Euphie earlier after she had a confrontation with an old classmate of mine's from Duel Monsters Prep School."

"I gather that's her opponent then, but why's Yumi so stressed out?" Terrance asked, wondering just who it was Euphemia was going to duel, "With the way she was sounding, you'd think Euphie was walking to her execution."

"Stella Harrington," Zukasu replied with a hint of bitterness in his tone, letting the three Ras know that he absolutely detested the girl.

James, Terrance and Abigail all trembled at hearing the name.

"Wait, Stella Harrington; the Stella Harrington?" Terrance said with a hint of fear in his voice.

"The J-Man's heard of her," James added, putting in his two cents, "She's brutal."

"I hear that everyone's who's duelled her hasn't been the same afterwards," Abigail said, letting Zukasu know that she also knew who Stella was.

"That's the understatement of the year," Zukasu said in a serious tone, "Believe me, the real Stella Harrington is far worse than those rumours say she is. I should know considering we both went to the same prep school."

"Poor Euphie," James said as he started running towards the entrance with the other two Ras and Obelisk in tow.

"Surely she can't be as bad as you say," Abigail said to Zukasu as she felt fearful for Euphemia as she ran.

"I assure you that I'm not exaggerating," Zukasu called back, "Stella not only beats her opponents and boasts about it; she intentionally goes out of her way to destroy them psychologically. Some of them even end up in mental hospitals and for all of them, it's their last duel."

* * *

><p>Inside at the main arena, Stella smirked as Euphemia and Yumi both showed up. She currently stood on the duelling field with Eileen and Hailey sitting up in the seats in one of the middle rows behind her.<p>

"Glad you could make it, you Pink-haired Floozy," she boasted with her arms folded as she puffed out her chest, clearly trying to make herself look important, "I was starting to wonder if you decided to grow a brain and flee. It would've been the smart thing to do, plus I'd get the fun of hunting you down and destroying those who got in my way."

"Whatever, let's just do this," Euphemia said in an unimpressed tone with an expression of annoyance, clearly considering this more of a nuisance than anything else.

Stella's eyes widened in shock and for a moment, it looked as if she was going to explode as Euphemia climbed up onto the duelling field, but she managed to stop herself before she could get started and let out a rather amused smirk.

"You must be in a hurry to lose," she taunted with a snide laugh.

"I just want to get this over with; win or lose" Euphemia replied simply with a shrug, "Anyway, I was warned about you type, Stella; the type that are so used to winning and flaunting their egos that they forget that they're only human. Well, I'm going to prove to you that you're just as human as everyone else and if you defeat me… it won't be because of the colour of your coat, your family's status or what race of people you belong to; it'll be because of the cards you played and how you played them."

Stella looked at Euphemia in shock as she heard this and then her eyes narrowed into a ferocious glare as she attached her duel disk, which looked identical to Euphemia's, but had blue markings instead of red markings to her left arm.

"I see that breaking you will be a bit tougher than I thought," she said with a hint of anger in her voice, "I've encountered that before; those who're difficult to break, but rest assured, I will break you; in the end everybody breaks."

Though in truth, something about Euphemia's last comment sparked a passionate fury within her. She did not know why, but something about what she said enraged her to no end.

"Only human," Euphemia's voice echoed in her head and Stella felt her rage increase at hearing that, though for the moment, she dismissed it

"Be careful, Euphie!" Yumi called out with fear and concern clearly dominating her tone, "Remember what Zukasu said about her!"

"Oh, so you met up with that Jap Mecha-freak," Stella said with pure venomous hatred in her voice as the words left her mouth, "The one who stole what was rightfully mine."

Euphemia just glared at Stella, not liking her attitude, though she remembered what Zukasu had told her about how he had been one of the two boys in Duel Monsters Prep School who scored higher than her and guessed that that was what she was referring to.

"I gather he's one of the two that that outdid you," she said and judging from the postures of Eileen and Hailey as they were clearly trembling after hearing her, she knew that she had hit the nail on the head.

"He was the one who scored the highest marks at the prep school, he graduated number one instead of me!" Stella practically shouted, letting her hatred and contempt for the Japanese boy be known, "That was my position and he stole it! Well, after I've beaten him, I'll gain what should've been mine to begin with."

"Let's just duel," Euphemia said as she activated her duel disk and drew five cards, clearly not wanting to hear any more of Stella's ranting.

"Couldn't agree more," Stella said in agreement as she followed Euphemia's example by activating her duel disk and drawing five cards.

"GAME ON!" the both shouted in unison as they stood facing one another.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

* * *

><p>Just as the duel was getting underway, Zukasu, James, Terrance and Abigail all came running through the arena entrance, causing Yumi to turn and look at them.<p>

"Are we too late?" James asked in concern, "The J-Man heard that Euphie was duelin' this brutal chick."

"You heard right and you're too late, the duel's already started," Yumi said with a defeated sigh, "I tried talking her out of it, but she's determined to show Stella just how like everyone else she is."

"That's impossible," Zukasu said as he looked up at Euphemia with a look of concern and then glared towards Stella, who glared back when she noticed him.

"What do you mean?" Abigail asked as she studied Stella's appearance along with James and her brother.

"I mean, Euphie's in for one hellish year here," Zukasu said with a "don't argue with me" tone that told the others that he was serious, "Even if she does somehow get lucky and manage to win, Stella's not someone who'll just accept it. She has her own warped view of the world and won't stand anyone proving her wrong. She's one of those people who enjoys living in a fantasy world and will do anything to ensure that her views aren't threatened."

"In other words, instead of changing her beliefs to fit the facts, she tries to change the facts to fit her beliefs," Terrance said simply with a look of contempt as he shot Stella a glare.

"Exactly and she takes that notion quite literally," Zukasu said, shaking his head in disgust, "You'll understand what I mean the more you get to know her."

"The J-Man never thought that a chick so brutal could be so hot," James said as he stared at Stella in disbelief as Stella did indeed look rather beautiful.

Everyone else turned to look at him questioningly.

"What, did the J-Man say that out loud?" he said, noticing everyone's looks, "Come on, you gotta admit that it's true."

"I suppose, but her beauty only serves to mask her cruel sadistic nature," Terrance noted, to which everyone nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>Back up on the duelling field, Stella smirked as she recovered from seeing Zukasu.<p>

"Well, well, looks like we're got an audience," she said as her grin widened, "The more people watching the better. Anyway, if you don't mind, I'll start things off."

She then drew a sixth card and looked at her hand, which held Cactaur, Tonberry, Pot of Greed, Giant Behemoth, Tonberry's Long Knife and Cactaur Growth, which she had just drawn. Smiling, she then selected her Cactaur card.

"Okay, first I summon Cactaur in defence mode," She said as she placed the Cactaur (600/900) card onto the middle monster space of her duel disk and then a small cactus like creature appeared on the field with a life-sized face-up holographic representation of its card underneath it.

The creature itself was not really all that big and had a light-green/dark-green vertical line pattern running round it. It also had three holes near its top in a triangular formation with the point pointing downwards, though the hole representing the point looked more like a rectangle with curved corners, indicating that the holes were the eyes and mouth of the creature. It also had three quills mounted at the top of its head in a prong shape and the arms and legs were at ninety-degree angles with the appearance on it kneeling down on one knee and one arm pointing upwards and the other pointing downwards.

"And now I activate his special ability," Stella announced as she held her hand out her hand at the Cactaur with her fingers spread, "Once per turn, he can deal one thousand points worth of damage to you directly."

In response, the small cactus like creature bent over with the three quills at the top of its head pointing straight at Euphemia and then it started rotating its arms and as the arms passed by the top of the head, the quills fired themselves at her with more growing in their place, only to be fired at Euphemia.

"One Thousand Needles," Stella commented as she grinned at seeing the pinkette being assaulted by a seemingly endless shower of quills.

**Euphemia**: 3000 – **Stella**: 4000

"I think I'll end my turn," she said as Euphemia winced from the phantom pain of the quill-assault.

* * *

><p>"Hey, is that legal?" Yumi said in shock, unable to believe that Stella already managed to gain the lead on her first turn.<p>

"Unfortunately, it is," Terrance said with a hint of annoyance, "You see, in a duel the duellist who starts off the duel can't conduct their battle phase as it's the first turn of the duel, but the damage that Cactaur dealt wasn't from battle; it was due to its effect, so Stella's not breaking the rules; she merely just exploited a loophole."

"Well, that's not fair," Yumi huffed as she glared at Stella, "To me, loopholes mean cheating within the confines of the rules."

"Not much anyone can do about it," Abigail said simply with a hint of displeasure, "Unfortunately, card effects don't fall under the same category as battle phases; including those effects that deal damage to the opposing duellist."

"Let's just see how Euphie responds," Zukasu said as he looked up at Euphemia.

* * *

><p>Euphemia nodded as she overheard what her friends were saying; accepting the explanation, though like them she was not pleased with it.<p>

"Okay then," she thought as she drew a sixth card from her deck and looked down at her hand, which had Magical Cylinder, Cybernetic Magician, Magical Exemplar, Flute of Summing Kuriboh, Stop Defence and Coast Down, which she had just drawn, "She has just one monster in defence mode and I only have one monster that I can summon to attack with, but since it's in defence mode, it won't affect her life points unless…"

She then glanced at the Stop Defence spell card and the Magical Exemplar in her hand, but then noticed that she also had, Cost Down, a card that decreases the level of one monster card in the owner's hand by two and realised that she could summon the Cybernetic Magician as well.

"Hey, are you gonna start your turn already?" Stella said in an impatient tone, "I really want to destroy you sometime this century."

"Patience is a virtue," Euphemia replied as she pondered her two possible moves, "Don't rush me; I'll start when I'm ready."

Stella growled furiously, feeling rather infuriated at the calmness in Euphemia's tone. Of course, she knew that off-hour duelling in the arenas were strictly prohibited, but she did not care, nor was she worried about Campus Security walking in and interrupting them while they were duelling. She had told them in advance about her plans and used her family's position in Duel Academy's Board of Directors to buy them off and ensure that this went unreported. She had an uncle on her father's side who was a member of Duel Academy's Board of Directors, so she was not in the least bit worried about getting expelled. Even if she had not paid off the Campus Security, she knew that she'd be let off leniently with a basic "Don't do it again" while Euphemia got the full-force of the punishment. It was just that she was really wanting to get to work tearing down Euphemia's spirit. This had been her intention ever since she had witnessed her defeat Dr Crowler, only now, she really wanted to destroy her due to her dismissive attitude towards her as she believed that Euphemia was looking down on her as if she were nothing more than an insect and the one thing Stella hated more than anything in the world was people looking down on her and the way Euphemia acted round her and how she seemed unimpressed by her just riled her up something awful.

"Okay," Euphemia said with a nod, "First I play the spell card, Cost Down."

She then inserted a card into a spell/trap slot, which had the image of the corner of a huge card displaying four stars with two swords sticking into two of the stars. A life-sized holographic version of the card then appeared on the field as Euphemia reached for her Flute of Summoning Kuriboh card.

"By discarding one card from my hand, I can downgrade the level of a monster in my hand by two, making my Cybernetic Magician a level-four monster," she then explained as she placed the Flute of Summoning Kuriboh card just outside the graveyard slot and once it went in, she reached for the Cybernetic Magician (2400/1000), "And I'll summon him in attack mode."

On the field, a man with greyish skin and greyish blonde hair appeared, wearing blue trousers, a whitish purple blazer with white gloves and boots along with a helmet with a white base and stripe running up the centre with whitish purple at either side, a white belt round his waist and another white belt a bit further down at a slight downward diagonal angle from left to right. He also wielded a staff with a blue orb at the top and looked ready to attack. All in all, he resembled a humanised robot, which was probably why he was called, Cybernetic Magician.

"Next, I'll play the spell card, Stop Defence, switching your Cactaur from defence mode into attack mode," Euphemia proclaimed as a life-sized hologram of a card showing the image of a knight holding up his shield with a white X over it appeared on the field as Euphemia inserted it into a spell/trap slot and then suddenly, the motionless Cactaur seemed to spring to life with its right leg stomping down and its left knee moving towards Euphemia and its arms started rotating a hundred and eighty-degrees at the front, "Now, Cybernetic Magician, attack that Cactaur."

The Cybernetic Magician nodded and pointed its staff towards the Cactaur and suddenly, a blue energy ball fired from the blue orb of the staff and slammed into the Cactaur, destroying it. Stella covered her face with her arms as the wind from the resulting explosion, despite it just being holographic.

**Euphemia**: 3000 – **Stella**: 2200

"I think that'll do for now," Euphemia said as she nodded towards Stella, indicating that it was her turn.

* * *

><p>"Wow, Euphie did it," Yumi said, impressed with how Euphemia managed to destroy Stella's Cactaur with a level-six monster despite it just being her first turn."<p>

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet," Zukasu said with a serious look on his face, "That was just the beginning. That's one of Stella's main strategies. She normally lets her opponents get a few shots at her life points before she starts with them. She lulls her opponents into a false sense of security before pulling out her best cards to destroy them."

"Doesn't look like Euphie's affected by it," James noted as he noticed Euphemia's expression had not changed.

"Just wait, Stella's got a whole range of vicious monsters waiting in her deck," Zukasu said as he shot Euphemia a concerned glance, "Each one of her monsters has a damaging effect of some kind. This is just the tip of the iceberg."

* * *

><p>Up on the duelling field, Stella just smirked as she drew her card, which turned out to be Bomb. This was a normal strategy for her; let her opponents get a few hits at her life points and fooling them into believing that they had won before pulling out her best cards. She found that that approach was easy in breaking their will to duel; especially those who were tough to break.<p>

"Okay, you Pink-haired Floozy, I'm going to go and summon Bomb in defence mode," she said, slapping the card she had just drawn onto her duel disk.

On the field, a floating orange orb with small stubby arms appeared. It also had black eyeballs with yellow irises that seemed to glow and its lips were jagged near the ends; obviously representing teeth and there was a small fire burning on top of its head in a circle, obviously representing hair. This was the monster know as Bomb (1100/1000).

"And then I'll play the spell card, Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards from my deck," the sadistic teal-haired girl went on as she played the Pot of Greed card in her hand and drew two more cards from her deck, which were Bomb Magnet and Malboro, "And then, I'll play the spell card, Bomb Magnet and with this in play, your monsters can't attack any other monster I have on the field other than my Bomb."

Once she placed the Bomb Magnet card, which had the image of the Bomb monster with a red outline and a swordsman that looked as if he was being forced to attack it into a spell/trap slot, the Bomb on the field started to emit the same aura as portrayed in the image.

"And that'll do for now," Stella concluded with a fiendish smirk, "Just try to destroy my Bomb."

Euphemia had a serious look on her face as she pondered Stella's move.

"Okay, she's really confident; as if she's sure that I can't destroy her monster," she thought as she noticed that the only card aside from Bomb that she had in play was Bomb Magnet, "I'm guessing that her Bomb can't be destroyed in battle and if that Bomb Magnet's anything to worry about, then I'm sure that her monster has a rather nasty special ability."

She then drew her card; Illusion Magician and then reached her Magical Exemplar card.

"Okay, I'll summon Magical Exemplar in attack mode and then place one card facedown," she said as she placed her Magical Exemplar (1700/1400) card onto the monster space that was next to the one that the Cybernetic Magician occupied at her left and then inserted her Magical Cylinder into the far right spell/trap slot.

A woman with long black hair and wearing a golden crown round her head, a golden necklace that covered her neck and rested on her shoulder, a green priest's robe with a hood that was down with the centre of the front beneath the chest area a darker shade of green with strange symbols running vertically down it. She also had a green belt just above her waist that looked a bit small for her, but was connected be a golden buckle shaped like an eye and the circle symbol on the robe that was where the space was made it appear like an eye and the buckle also had small golden chains attached to it running behind her. In addition, she also had golden wristbands with similar golden chains and she had her arms held out in front of her. Also, a life-sized version of Euphemia's facedown card appeared on the field as well.

"Okay now, Magical Exemplar, attack her Bomb and let's see if my theory is correct," Euphemia declared as the Magical Exemplar brought her hands together and formed an energy ball between them before hurtling it towards the Bomb.

The ball hit and Stella's smirk just grew wider, which did not go unnoticed by Euphemia. The resulting explosion from the impact had caused smoke and dust to appear and once it dissipated, Euphemia nodded as she was not surprised to see that the Bomb monster was still there.

"I thought as much," she said in an unsurprised and unimpressed tone, "Your Bomb can't be destroyed in battle."

"How true you are, Floozy," Stella said in confirmation, "But that's not all, watch this."

The Bomb started to move up and down erratically as if having a seizure and then orange sparks started to flash from its body as it suddenly become a bit larger, though its attack and defence points did not change.

"Whenever my Bomb is attacked, it grows even bigger," Stella explained, feeling a sense of pride.

"But I noticed that its attack and defence points haven't changed," Euphemia noted with a look of confusion.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll find out soon enough what my Bomb can do," Stella said with a smirk, "In fact, by attacking my Bomb when Bomb Magnet is in play, you triggered Bomb Magnet's other effect, which means that all monsters on your side of the field are forced to attack Bomb."

Even as the words left her mouth, the Cybernetic Magician pointed its staff as Bomb and fired an energy ball at it, which hit, but caused it grow again.

Euphemia just groaned.

"I end my turn," she said simply.

"Right, now I can begin mine as well as start my plot to destroy you," Stella boasted as she drew a card, which turned out to be a second Cactaur.

* * *

><p>"Okay, now the J-Man's confused," James said as he analysed the situation, "Just what's that monster do besides grow each time it's attacked?"<p>

"You'll see," Zukasu said simply, "And you'll also figure out just why that monster's called Bomb."

"I get the feeling that Euphie's going to be in trouble," Yumi said as she looked up at her new friend in concern.

"If what I hear about this Stella girl is true, then I'd think that trouble's an understatement," Abigail said as she shot a brief glare in Stella's direction.

"Well put," Zukasu said with a serious look on his face, "Trouble doesn't even scrape the tip of the iceberg with Stella. Euphie'll be lucky if she can live the rest of her life in peace."

* * *

><p>"Okay, let the hurtin' commence," Stella announced as she reached for her Tonberry (12001200) card and placed it on the monster space to the right of the one the Bomb card currently occupied.

A life-sized version of the Tonberry card appeared on the field as the monster depicted in the card walked out of it and then the holographic card disappeared, leaving only the monster. It was a small green monster with a round head and a rounded snout with yellow eyes and a tail that it dragged along the ground. It wore a tattered old priest-like robe and dark brown shoes that poked out from the bottom of the robe, but what Euphemia found peculiar was that the monster held what appeared to be an old fashioned oil lantern in its left hand and what looked like a chef's knife in its right. All in all, it looked like a bit like an anthropomorphic turtle without its shell. Its head definitely looked a bit like a cartoon drawing of a turtle's head.

"Are you ready for a world of hurt because I can guarantee you that once I'm through with you, you'll be living the rest of your life in fear," Stella boasted as she extended her arm out to the Tonberry monster, "Now witness Tonberry's special ability as, once per turn, he can remove one of my opponent's monsters from play and I choose your Magical Exemplar, so go and rid the field of that nuisance."

The Tonberry very slowly walked over to the Magical Exemplar and once it reached her, it then thrust its chef's knife through her stomach, causing her to double over as her eyes widened in shock before she disappeared.

"Don't forget, that she's been removed from play," Stella said as Euphemia lifted the Magical Exemplar card from its space and then placed it in her left trouser pocket, "Oh, I should've mentioned that you lose life points equal to half that monster's attack points."

Euphemia's eyes widened as she groaned and then a red holographic aura appeared round her body, indicating that she had been dealt damage and she grunted as she felt the phantom pain from it.

**Euphemia**: 2150 – **Stella**: 2200

"And also, my Bomb Magnet spell card kicks in," Stella announced as the Cybernetic Magician automatically pointed his staff at the Bomb monster and fired another energy ball at it.

Like the last time, it caused the Bomb to grow, but this time, it suddenly flew over to the Cybernetic Magician and exploded, taking the Cybernetic Magician, which had been caught in the blast with it.

"After my Bomb's attacked for a third time, it self-destructs and as you've already seen, it destroys the monster that last attacked it and you also get dealt half that monster's attack points as damage to your life points, so tough luck, you Pink-haired Floozy."

Euphemia groaned as another red aura appeared round her body and she could have sworn that the pain felt even worse than before.

**Euphemia**: 950 – **Stella**: 2200

"But I'm not done with you yet because my Tonberry has another special ability that I now activate," she said as she pointed at the Tonberry, which then started to wave its lantern and the flame within it started to glow a light purple and also emitted a purple mist that seemed to travel toward Euphemia.

The image of a dark purple skull appeared to surround Euphemia and she once again groaned, though the phantom pain was not as severe as the last time.

"For each monster in my graveyard, you suffer three hundreds points worth of damage and last I count, there were two; my Cactaur and the Bomb that just self-destructed this turn," Stella said in a rather boastful tone.

**Euphemia**: 350 – **Stella**: 2200

"I knew that you defeating Dr Crowler was just pure luck," Stella started boasting, "You're nothing more than a pathetic overrated Pink-haired Floozy who was recommended by a cheater. That's right; Jaden Yūki's nothing more than a good-for-nothing little cheat. I mean, like you, he was in Slifer Red and there's no way a Slifer Red is that good. I had to admit that I thought that you'd be in Ra Yellow at least, but I can see that the faculty here are a lot smarter than I gave them credit for. You're a nobody Jaden picked up off the streets because he probably felt sorry for you. You're a nobody, a hack and you definitely don't belong here, which is why I'm going to destroy you so utterly that you'll never want to duel again."

* * *

><p>All of Euphemia's friends flinched at hearing the cruel girl's speech.<p>

"This is bad, Euphie's down to less than seven-eighths of her life points," Yumi said in a worried tone, especially considering that the Tonberry monster had yet to have its normal attack as the last two moves were just its effects.

"Don't worry, Euphie's safe," Zukasu said as he then gave her a brief glance filled with concern, "If Tonberry uses both of its abilities on the same turn then it can't attack till its owners next turn. However, if Stella had only used one of its abilities, then she'd be free to attack, though I don't think it'll do much good. This is what she does. She lets her opponents take out a good chunk of her life points and then she executes moves like that; taking a good portion of her opponent's life points and then ridicules and taunts them; kicking them down."

"Look at Euphie, I don't think she's affected at all be it," Abigail said, noticing that Euphemia's expression had not changed at all.

"Wow, she must really be somethin'," James noted.

* * *

><p>"Are you done?" Euphemia said in a rather bored tone from back up on the duelling field, causing Stella's eyes to widen in pure shock, "Just finish your turn already."<p>

"What?" Stella said, at a loss for words as she had not expected Euphemia to just blow her off like that, "Impossible, she should be starting to tremble in fear."

"Well, I'm not and you don't scare me one bit," Euphemia replied, shaking her head, "If you want to believe all that, then go ahead because in truth, I really don't care what you think about me or Jaden for that matter. You're entitled to your opinions."

* * *

><p>Up in the stands behind Stella, Eileen and Hailey were also shocked to hear this.<p>

"Wow, either she's really brave, or just plain stupid," Eileen commented with a hint of fear in her voice; fear as she knew what Stella was like when she was angered, "I don't know if I should praise her or pity her because Stella's not something you want to anger."

"Unbelievable, no one's done that to Stella before," Hailey noted, not having heard her friend's comment due to her own shock, "Usually when Stella starts taking away their life points in huge chunks, they start to break."

* * *

><p>Back down on the duelling field, Stella narrowed her eyes as she glared furiously at Euphemia. This was not something she had expected as usually when she started turning the duel back in her favour, her opponents started to break, but not Euphemia and she did not know how to handle it. When she first saw Euphemia, she had seen that she was a kind and caring individual who seemed to love everyone around her and believe that everything was good and it was those types of people that Stella loved to destroy the most as they were easily broken, but apparently Euphemia had proved that in light of her kind and caring nature, she also had a fierce determined spirit that she had not expected and it infuriated her that she had gotten her assessment wrong. It burned her up inside to see Euphemia staring at her like that as she believed that Euphemia considered her as someone beneath her.<p>

"Anyway, luckily for you, since I activated both my Tonberry's abilities this turn, he's prohibited from attacking, but next turn, he'll unleash his attack," she said as she struggled to hold onto her composure, "So with nothing else to do, I end my turn."

"My draw," Euphemia said as she drew Pot of Greed and then placed it into a spell/trap slot, "I play Pot of Greed, which you know lets my draw two additional cards from my deck."

She then drew her two cards, which were Watapon and Monster Reborn.

"And one of the cards I drew was Watapon and since he was added to my hands due to a card effect, I can summon him onto the field," she said as she placed the Watapon (200/300) card onto a monster space and a small white furry ball appeared on the field with big blue eyes and two antenna with a white furry ball attached to end of each one.

"What's that going to do; ram into my face and suffocate me?" Stella jokingly laughed with a scoff, "I think that you're out of options, Floozy."

"My name is Euphemia," Euphemia said, though she sounded more annoyed than insulted, "But if you want to call me a pink-haired floozy, then go ahead. I don't really care."

"What?" Stella growled as she felt the fingers in her left hand, which was holding her cards tighten in fury, "You're starting to piss me off, you know that."

"Whatever," Euphemia said dismissively, "Jaden warned me about your kind; the kind who beat people down to inflate their already overinflated egos. I'm just not bothered by it."

"Oh, believe me, you will be bothered when I'm through with you," Stella said, growling in a dangerously low tone that caused Euphemia's friends at the side to tremble in fear, "Anyway, just finish your turn already."

Euphemia nodded.

"Then I summon Illusion Magician in attack mode," she said, resuming from where she left off as the caricature of the Dark Magician appeared on the field, "And then I active the spell card, Monster Reborn to bring back my Cybernetic Magician."

She then played the Monster Reborn card, which had the image of what appeared a silver beautifully decorated honour-badge and the badge appeared on the field with a red glow as the Cybernetic Magician (2400/1000) appeared next to the Illusion Magician (1250/1050)

"What, three monsters?" Stella said in shock as she realised that she had no facedown cards to protect her and if she was right in her calculations, with two of her monsters having twelve hundred and fifty attack points and twenty-four hundred attack points and her only monster having only twelve hundred attack points, she knew that she had lost.

"Impossible!" she screamed in shock as the realisation suddenly downed on her, "No, no, I still have my best monsters to show."

"Too bad because this duel is over," Euphemia said as she nudged her head towards the Illusion Magician, "Attack her Tonberry."

The Illusion Magician twirled his staff and then pointed it at the Tonberry and fired a green bolt of energy that struck the Tonberry, causing it to explode.

**Euphemia**: 350 – **Stella**: 2150

"Okay, now, Cybernetic Magician, attack Stella directly," Euphemia ordered as the Cybernetic Magician complied as he pointed his staff towards Stella and fired an energy ball at her.

"NO WAY!" Stella screamed in pure shock, unable to believe that she had lost just as the ball hit her and exploded; the phantom force of the blast causing her to take a massive jump back and she landed on her back with her head just off the edge of the duelling field.

**Euphemia (winner)**: 350 – **Stella**: 0

Euphemia then mimicked the gesture she used after she had defeated Dr Crowler and gave Stella a hard stare.

"That's all she wrote," she said, though unlike with Dr Crowler, her tone lacked cheerfulness.

* * *

><p>"Wow, I don't believe it," Zukasu said as his eyes widened in shock, "She actually won."<p>

"Unreal, she didn't cave into that femme fatale," Terrance said, unable to believe what had just happened, "I guess Lady Luck decided to favour her."

"Way to go, Euphie!" Yumi shouted at Euphemia and Euphemia turned to smile warmly at her.

"The J-Man's impressed," James said, still unable to get over how Euphemia had shrugged off Stella's cruel speech.

"Though I doubt that this is over," Abigail thought as she saw Stella pick herself up while glaring furiously at Euphemia and it concerned her, "Something tells me that Euphemia probably would have been better off if she had lost to her because I don't think Stella's the kind of person anyone would want to have as a rival."

Zukasu was also thinking the same thing as he glanced between Euphemia and Stella with a look of concern clearly evident on his face.

"Stella's not going to take this lying down," he thought as he shot the sadistic teal-haired girl a glare, "Especially considering that she never got to summon her best monsters. I get feeling the next time you both duel, Stella's going to be a lot more vicious than before."

* * *

><p>"I d-d-d-don't b-b-b-believe it," Eileen stuttered in disbelief as she saw Euphemia defeat her friend, "She actually won; the Slifer Whore actually won."<p>

"Yeah, I'm shocked," Hailey said in equal disbelief, "Who would've thought that a Slifer was capable of defeating an Obelisk?"

"And you know who Stella's gonna take it out on, don't you?" Eileen said as she turned and looked at her friend with a look of fear.

"Us," Hailey replied simply as she felt a shiver run up and down her spine.

"Right, I think it's best we make ourselves scarce," Eileen said and Hailey nodded in agreement before they both got to their feet and ran off in opposite directions deciding that it was best to leave their leader alone till she had calmed down.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the arena, Jaden stood at an exit behind the seats as he gazed at Zukasu. He had seen everything and needless to say, he was impressed that Euphemia had managed to defeat Stella, whom he had heard about and knew how brutal she could be and what impressed him the most was the fact that she had managed to defeat her before she had the chance to bring out her more powerful monsters, though, like everyone else, he could not help but worry about her considering the fact that he knew Stella would not take this lightly and would no doubt seek Euphemia out for a rematch in which she would be undoubtedly more brutal and vicious than before.<p>

"Kinda reminds me of my first duel with Chazz," he thought as he remembered how he and Chazz had arranged to meet up on the first day of their arrival at the academy, though unlike the duel between Stella and Euphemia, that duel had been interrupted by the campus security as off-hour duelling was not allowed, but had that duel not been interrupted, Jaden knew that he would have won, but Chazz left believing that he would have won.

Anyway, pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he resumed his suspicious gaze in Zukasu's direction, still unsure why he looked like a dark-skinned clone of Suzaku and he had to wonder if his confusion over his familiarity with Euphemia was just a carefully constructed façade. After all, he did notice his confusion; especially after Euphemia had addressed him as Suzaku.

"Is he foolin' everyone, or is it just that he genuinely doesn't know?" he thought just as he felt a vibration in his right trouser pocket.

He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone and opened it up as he answered it.

"Talk to me," he said in a quiet voice so as not to alert everyone in the arena to his presence.

"Hey, Jaden, I did a background check on that Rikuguru kid like you wanted," the voice of the person on the other end said simply.

"Uh huh, and…?" Jaden said inquiringly.

"Zukasu Rikuguru; born seventeen years ago in Tōkyō, son of Yuriko and Kyōya Rikuguru," the person on the other end explained, causing Jaden's eyes to widen in shock, "Everything about him checks out. He was at the top of his classes in school and attended Duel Monsters Prep School where he practically blew the competition away, though his parents both died last year when a bus they were in overturned and fell down a steep slope and he has no surviving relatives."

"So, he's all alone," Jaden said with a growl of frustration, clearly not believing what he just heard.

"Yes, though his parents did leave him an inheritance," the person on the other end said, sounding a bit taken aback by Jaden's frustrated tone, "Why are you so interested in him anyway?"

"Oh, I suppose it's just paranoia since he looks a lot like someone I've seen before," Jaden replied honestly with a sigh.

"I'll continue to see what else I can dig up," the person on the other end said in the hopes of cheering Jaden up, "I said that everything checks out so far, but there are a few things that raised my eyebrows, so we'll just wait and see."

"Yeah, thanks, Axel," Jaden said, feeling rather deflated at this revelation as he hung up and placed his cell phone back in his pocket.

"I don't buy it," he thought as he looked down at Zukasu with a hard look on his face, "His name's an anagram of the name that the person he looks like him has, plus he's familiar with the girl that the guy he looks like fell in love with. I don't care what Axel says, there's something about him that doesn't feel right."

That much was true, he told himself. However, if everything about him checked out, then it obviously meant that some sort of supernatural power had to be involved; it was the only explanation. Of course, Jaden knew that he could possibly just be paranoid and did not like to be wrong about his suspicions, but the more he told himself that, the more his suspicions continued to nag at him and it was only made worse by Zukasu's apparent ignorance. However, he decided that for now, it was best to drop it as there was nothing he could do, but he vowed that he was keep a close watch on Zukasu as well as keep an eye on Euphemia since that was his original intention as well as the high probable fact that she was the target of whatever plan Zukasu was involved in. He then turned and left.

* * *

><p>Back down on the duelling field, Euphemia continued to give Stella a hard stare as she glared at her.<p>

"That was just a fluke," Stella practically spat, unable to hold onto her composure any longer, "Or you cheated."

"Believe that if you want," Euphemia said as she turned to walk away, but the stopped when her back was to the teal-haired girl and turned her head round to give her a glance, "But the problem is that you underestimated me. You think that you're the best; that no one can beat you, so you go into every duel believing that you've already won even before the opening move and this time, it cost you, but if you want to believe otherwise, then go ahead. I'm not going to waste my breath trying to convince you otherwise."

"Just who the hell do you think you are saying that to me?" Stella practically shouted with her voice full of venomous hatred for the pinkette, "You defeated Dr Crowler by a fluke and by an amazing stroke of luck; you ended up winning this one by a fluke as well. You're a nobody; you hear me, a nobody!"

Euphemia just shrugged, which just caused Stella's rage to increase even more.

"Whatever, but fluke or not, I have proven that you're not unbeatable," she said dismissively, "I've knocked you off your high horse and sent you crashing down to reality. You were so into your own delusion that you forgot that you're just a human being like everyone else. Like I said before, you're only human; deal with it."

She then walked off leaving Stella glaring murderously at her back and those watching would not have been surprised if she revealed she had a weapon hidden on her person and she used it to hurt or even kill Euphemia. However, all she did was glare at her.

"Only human, only human, only human," Euphemia's voice echoed in her mind, repeating those two words over and over again; each time causing Stella's rage to increase.

* * *

><p>"Well, that was quite the evening," Zukasu said as he turned to leave along with James, Terrance and Abigail, but he noticed that Yumi stayed put, "Aren't you coming with us, Yumi?"<p>

"I think I'll wait for Euphie," she said as she gave a nervous glance at Stella, who looked ready to explode with pure rage; in fact she looked as if she was going to kill someone and that terrified her greatly.

"Oh well, suit yourself," Zukasu said with a shrug as he started to walk off.

It was not long before Euphemia came to where Yumi was waiting.

"Come on, Yumi, let's go, I think it's way passed our bedtime and classes start tomorrow, so we'd best get as much sleep as possible," she said as she walked by Yumi while motioning her to follow.

"Uh, yeah," Yumi said unsurely with a nod as she glanced back at Stella who was still fuming and seemed rooted to the spot and she then followed Euphemia and spoke up, "Euphie, something tells me that this isn't over between you and Stella."

"Well then, if she wants a rematch, she's more than welcome," Euphemia said simply, "In fact, I'm rather looking forward to it. Maybe next time, she'll bring out her more powerful monsters."

Yumi just stopped and stared at Euphemia in shock.

"But, Euphie, she looks like she wants to kill you," Yumi said fearfully, "Something tells me that she'll be even more ferocious than before and that her attitude in this duel will seem nice in comparison."

"I know," Euphemia said with a sigh, "I'm not that stupid. I'll just have to watch it, won't I?"

Yumi then continued walking, giving her friend a fearful look as she was afraid of what Stella was going to do to her the next time they duelled.

* * *

><p>Up on the duelling field, Stella just watched them go as she continued to glare furiously in Euphemia's direction, even after both Euphemia and Yumi had left her field of vision. She heard everything they both said and remembering the loss, she balled both her hands into fists as she remembered how Euphemia had seemingly not taken her seriously with that rather dismissive attitude of hers. Stella felt rather furious, humiliated and disgraced. Harringtons were winners; that was what her parents had told her. Being a Harrington meant that you could not lose to anyone, but unfortunately, she had lost to a "Pink-haired Floozy" who was a nobody at best and who only managed to win through a massive fluke, at least that's what she told herself. She knew that unless she avenged her defeat, her family would view her as a disgrace and given that she was the heiress to the Harrington Family, she also faced the possibility of disinheritance and she was determined that she would not let that happen under any circumstances.<p>

"So, you're looking forward to our next duel, are you?" she thought as she remembered what Euphemia had said to Yumi, "Well then, I can pretty much guarantee you that you'll be in for more than you bargained for and I'll show you that no amount of preparation can possibly save you from my wrath."

"Only human," she heard Euphemia's voice echo in her mind again, as if taunting her and Stella clenched her eyes shut as she struggled to calm herself down.

She then started to move towards the exit, practically storming out of the arena and either she was unaware or did not care that her two friends had abandoned her since she was so full of rage to think straight. She did not even glance up at where Eileen and Hailey had been as she left, but then again, she did not really consider them her friends; just pawns to help her boost her ego and vent her frustrations out on and would eventually discard them once she believed she could no longer get any more use out of them.

"Only human," the voice in her head echoed again.

Stella then lashed out, letting out a rather violent kick at a waste bin that she just happened to be passing, causing it to fall onto the floor and spill out its contents, but then she just stormed off, not bothering to clean up the mess just as three members of the Campus Security teams came round the corner, though they just ignored her since she had paid them off earlier to leave her alone.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Euphemia and Yumi are sitting in a classroom with Dr Crowler as the teacher.

"_Phew, that was close; I thought for sure that you were in over your head," Yumi says, "Though I think you have no idea just what you've gotten yourself into, Euphie."_

"_Don't worry Yumi, I'm not worried about Stella," Euphemia replies._

Stella is in the same classroom glaring down at Euphemia.

She openly insults Yumi after she can't answer a question, only to be reprimanded by Dr Crowler, which causes her to storm out of the classroom, but she stops and says something to Euphemia before she leaves.

"_I'm serious, Euphie, Stella's not the sort of rival you want to have," Yumi says in a panicked tone, "She may end up trying to kill you."_

"_Kill me, over losing to me in a card game, where'd you get that idea?" Euphemia says, obviously not taking the threat seriously._

Stella sits alone in her room pondering what to do about Euphemia.

"_Anyway, never mind that, who's this guy?" Euphemia says, changing the subject._

Tyranno Hassleberry appears at the Slifer Red Dorm.

"_That's Tyranno Hassleberry, one of Jaden's old friends," Blair says, putting in her two cents, "He arrived during Jaden's second year and now is a third year student."_

"_Wow, one of Jaden's friends?" Euphemia says in excitement._

"_You must be the girl the Sarge recommended," Hassleberry says, "The name's Hassleberry. Nice to meetcha. I guess with the Sarge gone, that'll make you the new Sarge."_

"_Yes, he talks like he's in the military," Blair sighs in an unimpressed tone._

Hassleberry then challenges Euphemia to a duel.

"GAME ON!" both Hassleberry and Euphemia shout in unison.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

"_I want to see what you got," Hassleberry said, "Show me what you can do out on the battlefield."_

"_Well, okay, by the way, my name's Euphemia," Euphemia says simply._

"_Sargent Euphie, I like the sound of that, though a female Sarge…?" Hassleberry says a bit unsure, but then laughs, "Ah, what the hay, women can be in the military to."_

The duel ends and this time, Euphemia has lost, though she had she lasted one more turn, she would have won.

"_Nice duel, Sarge," Hassleberry said, clearly impressed._

"_Yeah, I may have lost that one, but it just goes to show that I'm not unbeatable," Euphemia laughs._

"_Next time: Jurassic Duel," Yumi says, "Euphie suffered her first loss? Oh well, at least it's not to Stella. I do wonder what she's up to though"_

Stella is writing a note with a rather evil grin on her face.

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the Chapter<strong>

**Name** – Cybernetic Magician

**Attribute** – Light

**Type** – Spellcaster/Effect

**Level** – 6

**ATK/DEF** – 2400/1000

**Info** – You can discard one card to change the ATK of 1 face-up monster to 2000 until the End Phase of this turn.

"_A monster card, great, though Euphemia never used its effect," Jaden says in disappointment._

"_That's because at the end of the duel, she had no cards in her hand to discard," the author says simply._

"_I also noticed that she played Magical Cylinder facedown, but didn't use it," Jaden says._

"_That's because she didn't have to," the author says in annoyance, "That move was just an insurance policy as she had no idea what Stella's monsters were capable of. Had her Tonberry been able to attack on her last turn, she would have used it, but since it didn't and she already had the cards needed to win in her hand, she used them."_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Another chapter done and it took forever to write, though I thought that I would have finished yesterday. Anyway, I was a bit disappointed with how the duel between Euphemia and Stella panned out. I had been hoping to get more of Stella's monster's on the field, but then when I looked over the cards at Euphemia's disposal, I realised that she could win, but don't worry, Stella will show more of her monsters in the future (which are based off the monsters that commonly appear in the Final Fantasy games, which is property of Square Enix). Anyway, once this chapter is up and I've ironed out al of, if not most of the mistake, I'll get to work on the OC profiles I said I'd put in my profile and on another note, I would like a few reviews; even just one per chapter would probably be enough.


	4. Jurassic Duel

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Jurassic Duel**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

* * *

><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – In Britannia, Schneizel el Britannia, Second Prince and Prime Minister of the Holy Britannian Empire thinks back to two months previously when the Black Rebellion took place in "Area Eleven" and the SAZ Massacre that sparked it and how Euphemia's body had somehow mysteriously vanished without a trace from his own ship as the Emperor seems to have been overcome with paranoia since the disappearance. Meanwhile, Euphemia and her friends attend their first day of classes at Duel Academy with Stella still seething furiously after her apparent defeat at Euphemia's hands. As she plots her revenge, Euphemia is approached by Tyranno Hassleberry, an old friend of Jaden's who's eager to test her duelling skills. Can Euphemia defeat the dino-duellist/military drill-sergeant or will she suffer her first taste of defeat? One thing's for sure, Euphemia will be in for a challenge and a lesson in humility that'll remind her of Jaden and Yugi's lessons before she came to Duel Academy and as for Stella… her plan involves, not only defeating Euphemia, but getting her expelled as well.

* * *

><p><strong>Code Geass World – Pendragon, Britannian Homeland, Saint Darwin Street, Imperial Palce, Prime Minister's office<strong>

Schneizel el Britannia looked out the window of his office as he contemplated the events of the past two months. It was raining heavily outside and the raindrops battered the window hard; as if trying their best to break the glass and get inside, but it was no use. The glass was too strong for the globs of water to penetrate; not that heavy rain was common in Pendragon. After all, the Imperial Capital of the world's most powerful empire was in the middle of a desert where heavy rainstorms like the one outside were exceptionally rare, but Schneizel was not in the least bit interested in the weather, though the thunder and lightning that accompanied the rainstorm seemed a perfect representation of the turmoil that had gripped his mind for the past two months since his half-sister, Euphemia li Britannia had died after she had apparently ordered a massacre at the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan, which in turn led to the Black Rebellion and Euphemia's dead body mysteriously vanishing from his own flagship, the Avalon.

It was just mind-boggling how it all occurred. Euphemia was a kind, sweet and caring soul that would never hurt a fly and yet he had seen the massacre that she had ordered and even saw her participating in it with the expression of a happy toddler having a fun time at the fair. He remembered his own shock at seeing that. Okay, granted, he did not like "Area Eleven" to say the least, but even he would not go as far as to systematically slaughter all those people; unless of course he had deemed it necessary, which he did not. He had hated the Japanese for the supposed deaths of his half-siblings, Lelouch and Nunnally and his hatred grew after Clovis's demise, but even then, he would not have condoned such a barbaric massacre as it would have been pointless since what was done could not be undone.

"Euphie…" he thought as he looked up as he remembered how his little half-sister had approached him with her proposal for the SAZ and how he had agreed to it, though not because he had shared Euphemia's vision of a free and independent Japan; but rather because he saw it as an effective way of bringing the "Elevens" under control and turning them against the Black Knights.

He knew why the "Elevens" resorted to terrorism. After all, Britannia had invaded their home, helped themselves to their resources while at the same time walking all over them and demoting them to something that was considered less than human. It was natural for them to be resentful and fight back. Schneizel knew that if the situation was reversed, he and the other Britannians would have done the same thing. However, Britannia needed the Sakuradite that "Area Eleven" had… at least that's what the Emperor had claimed and conquering and subjugation were all that Britannia knew. It was a nation that believed that in Social Darwinism; the strong will survive and the weak shall perish and conquering and subjugation justified the right to survive. It sickened Schneizel to no end and yet, he found himself going with the flow, though he was planning on usurping the Emperor and taking the throne for himself someday. In any case, he had agreed to the SAZ because it created an illusion of independence. The Japanese would have gotten some of their rights back, but it would have still been under Britannian control. It pulled the wool over their eyes and trapped them in a fantasy world where they would believe that they were independent and not only that… they would also turn on the various terrorist groups that had fought for them in the past and without the public's support, the organisations would have collapsed. With the Japanese believing that they had gained what they wanted, they would have seen no need for terrorism and what was better, if the terrorists disagreed, then it would label them as the people's enemies; effectively leaving them in a no-win situation. If they agreed, then they would be swallowed up by the system and if they disagreed then they would have to contend with the people they had once fought for.

That's how he had envisioned it. Of course he knew that not everyone would have agreed to it. He knew that there were those smart enough to see through the ruse, but he never considered them a threat. After all, what could they do? It could have potentially split the Japanese population, but that was a price worth paying. Those who did not want to join did not have to join. They could have kept their title as "Elevens" for all Schneizel cared. There was nothing they could have done about it anyway… at least that's what he had thought. He remembered when his half-sister, Cornelia had come, complaining about the situation after she had had a falling-out with Euphemia over the issue and he had managed to calm her down by explaining his reasons for agreeing to it, though he knew that Cornelia still had misgivings over it as she believed that some terrorists; Zero in particular would seek to sabotage the ceremony and discredit Euphemia and though Schneizel knew that that was a distinct possibility, he had just dismissed it as he did not see how anyone could possibly sabotage the event. If there was an assassination attempt on Euphemia, then the people would have turned on those responsible regardless of whether the attempt was successful or not, but that had not happened.

"What a fool I was," he mused to himself with a sad sigh.

He remembered how Euphemia had wanted to help the Japanese and give them back their home and what he had seen during the massacre seemed to contradict this, but he knew Euphemia well enough to know that she had not been herself. The only explanation he could think of was that Zero had done something to her that had made her carry out the massacre, though how he managed to accomplish this was something that he found to be completely and utterly impossible. Zero had requested an audience with Euphemia alone beforehand and the next time she appeared on stage alone, she had asked the Japanese to die as if asking people to die was a normal-everyday thing and then she ordered the soldiers to kill the Japanese, injuring Andreas Darlton in the process when he tried talking sense into her and it was only then did the soldiers put aside their confusion and start the massacre. It simply stunned Schneizel to no end how Zero had done such a thing, though going through Zero's history since his appearance, it started to make sense. He recalled how Bartley Aspirus and Clovis's advisors had all apparently deserted the G-1 Base in the Shinjuku Ghetto and claimed to have no memory of doing so. Jeremiah Gottwald had apparently also claimed to suffer memory loss after he apparently went berserk at Suzaku Kururugi's court martial in which he and the Purist Faction attempted to stitch Kururugi up for Clovis's murder in a bid to further their own influence in "Area Eleven". Anyway, after Zero had mentioned the word, "Orange", Gottwald apparently had a change of heart and released Kururugi to Zero and then went on a rampage after his subordinates tried to stop Zero and his accomplice from making off with Kururugi and interestingly enough… when Schneizel himself had ordered Kururugi to restrain Zero while the Avalon and the Gawain bombarded the area with missiles at Shikine Island in an effort to kill Zero; Kururugi had disobeyed his orders and was up on charges of insubordination and he claimed to have no memory of what he had done and looking into Zero's activities in the past, he found many cases of people apparently helping him and then claiming that they did not remember what they had done. One nobleman apparently had his vehicle stolen and yet he had not reported it nor did he seem to recall ever having it in his possession in the first place despite what the vehicle's records had said and the vehicle had been recovered after the Black Rebellion and was found to have been in possession of the Black Knights.

"As ridiculous as it sounds, it's the only explanation I can think of," he muttered to himself, "Zero must have some supernatural hypnotic power at his disposal that he used on Euphie to discredit her."

Of course, he still found the idea of the supernatural ridiculous, but based on what the evidence he had gathered, what other possible explanation could there be to explain it all? It was obvious that Zero had not agreed with the SAZ and sought to sabotage the ceremony, but never in his wildest dreams had Schneizel imaged that he would go so far; even if he had some sort of supernatural hypnosis at his disposal. He kept that explanation to himself as he knew that if he had voiced it, then the chances were, he'd be labelled a madman despite the circumstantial evidence he had. What he needed to expose Zero's hypnotic power was physical evidence, so until then, he would maintain his silence. Of course, he knew that it would probably be impossible to get that evidence as Zero had been captured and reportedly executed, though he had his doubts. After all, the reason Suzaku Kururugi was now the Knight of Seven in the Knights of the Round was because it was him who had apprehended Zero and had been sworn to secrecy by the Emperor.

Still, he found it interesting that Zero would abandon his own rebellion and go to Kamine Island for no apparent reason since it was that action that had led to his downfall. He had set a trap for Suzaku Kururugi at Ashford Academy, but with some help from Lloyd and Cecile, Suzaku had escaped from that trap and chased Zero down. However, back at Ashford Academy, Lloyd had come across a girl by the name of Nina Einstein, which he had learned was working on theories on how to combine Uranium-235 with Sakuradite to use as a viable source of fuel and he had supplied her with Sakuradite to help in her research. However, that was not what had interested Schneizel; what had interested the Prime Minister and Second Prince was that after Euphemia had been killed by Zero, Nina had apparently lost her mind and attempted to build a nuclear bomb so she could wipe out the entire Tōkyō Settlement just so she could kill Zero and avenge Euphemia. Fortunately, her makeshift bomb failed to detonate. However, Nina's research had intrigued him. He remembered Lloyd forwarding all of Nina's research to him afterwards and it impressed him that such a young girl had come up with such complex theories.

Schneizel found himself chuckling as he remembered how he had learned that Nina had a severe case of xenophobia towards "Elevens" and how she was absolutely afraid of them as if they were monsters incarnated. He also learned that she had been a hostage at the Lake Kawaguchi Hotel during the JLF siege and how Euphemia, who was also there revealed herself to save her life after her xenophobia had gotten her into trouble with the "Eleven" guards. Since then, Nina had developed a rather unhealthy lesbian obsession with Euphemia, which had driven her to insanity and emotional instability after Euphemia was murdered. When asked about the massacre, Nina's answer was simple; "She was just doing what was right, they were Elevens and deserved to die". That had been a bit of a shock. Even the most hardened Britannian xenophobes had been shocked at the massacre, but apparently, Nina had clearly lost her mind. Whatever trauma she had suffered in the past at the hands of the "Elevens" had led her to believing that they deserved to die just for being alive, but that did not matter to Schneizel to say the least. What he wanted was her mind. With the theories she had come up with, Schneizel saw her as a pawn that was capable of developing the missing component in his ultimate plan to bring about world peace.

His plan involved building a huge sky fortress that would then be positioned above the Earth at such a height that it would be able to strike anywhere on the planet no matter how far away it was. It was a plan to scare the world into abandoning conflict and live in peace… basically, peace through fear of annihilation. Unfortunately, the only thing missing from this plan was the weapon that would be used to scare the world into submission. Schneizel knew that he needed a weapon far greater than anything today's weapons were capable of in terms of destructive capacity. He needed a weapon capable of wiping out entire cities and for the longest time, he believed it to be impossible, but with Nina's research and the bomb she had constructed in her mad attempt to kill Zero, he knew that such a weapon could potentially be built. After Nina had been arrested and flown back to the Homeland, Schneizel had immediately brokered for her release and recruited her to his nuclear research team, In Vogue, which was based in Dallas. Her task was to build a bomb like the one that had failed to detonate in Tōkyō, only this one would be on a far bigger scale. It was rather easy to manipulate Nina into doing what he wanted her to do. All he had to do was remind her of Euphemia and how she would act, though he found her obsession with his half-sister laughable. Euphemia was kind and caring to everyone and here she was; a misguided xenophobe that clearly was not right in the head and who was dedicated to creating a weapon of mass destruction that she vowed would be used to destroy Zero and the Black Knights in Euphemia's name.

"A highly destructive weapon created out of sheer spite and misguided obsession," Schneizel mused to himself with a chuckle, "I guess it's true what they say; admiration is the emotion that is furthest from understanding. Would you have become so obsessed with my dear half-sister had you known the real Euphemia?"

He knew that Euphemia would not have approved with her had she still been alive and would have no doubt condemned the research she was doing and the fact that Nina was oblivious to Euphemia's kind and caring nature towards even those who were not Britannian was what Schneizel found laughable. Nina was clearly gullible and easily manipulated. Her mind was very fragile and easily broken even before the Lake Kawaguchi incident. She had believed that Euphemia was a goddess and had clung to her like a lifeline as if she could not live without her and from her actions in the immediate aftermath of her death, Schneizel believed that to be the truth. After all, she had been willing to kill millions of innocents just to kill the man that had "taken her idol from her".

Speaking of Euphemia, Schneizel also recalled how, during the Black Rebellion, her dead body had mysteriously vanished without a trace from the sickbay on board the Avalon. After she had died, the Avalon's crew had decided that it was best to leave her body where it was until they landed back in the Homeland. However, while the Black Rebellion was in full-swing, there had been some sort of technical glitch with the camera watching over her body, in which the monitor displaying the room in the surveillance room displayed only static and when the glitch had seemed to sort itself out, Euphemia's body was gone and the doctor and nurse that had seen to her before she died were unconscious on the floor and had no physical marks on their bodies and when they both regained consciousness several hours later, neither one could remember what had happened, though it was obvious to Schneizel that they had walked in on the body-snatcher and he or she must have done something to them to make them forget.

Unfortunately, the body-snatcher had vanished without a trace and the Avalon's security teams could not find Euphemia's body or the person that had taken it despite their best efforts. It was indeed a mystery. The Avalon always had rather tight security and just simply could not be infiltrated without the person being detected. The Avalon had been up in the air at the time and there was just no possible way anyone could have infiltrated it, steal Euphemia's body and then escape unnoticed. Any approaching aircraft and even Knightmare Frames using Float Systems would have instantly been detected no matter what direction they had approached in and even if the intruder had stowed themselves away while the Avalon had still been on the ground prior to that point, there was just no possible way they could have escaped. Schneizel had funded the Avalon's construction and had seen the schematics and blueprints so many times that he knew every nook and cranny like the back of his hand and even he; despite all his strategic brilliance could not have pulled off something of this magnitude. The security teams had scoured the Avalon from top to bottom countless times during its trip back to the Homeland and even hours after it had landed, but nothing unusual or suspicious had been found. It was as if Euphemia's body had simply vanished into thin air and he knew the doctor and nurse had been telling the truth when they said that they could not remember since reports said that Kururugi had practically beaten the doctor up after he returned from apprehending Zero and the doctor still maintained that he did not remember, though Kururugi had told Schneizel afterwards that he knew the doctor was telling the truth, but was so caught up in his anger that he just beat him up anyway because he wanted to hurt someone and he did not care who.

"Understandable," he thought dismissively as he clearly did not care.

What puzzled him was why anyone would want to steal a dead body? That seemed to be a question that His Majesty, the Emperor wanted answered as well. He remembered how his father had practically demanded that he start an investigation into the mystery and recover Euphemia's body as well as kill her if it turned out that she was alive. That had surprised Schneizel as the Emperor had apparently shown no interest in the Black Rebellion or even the SAZ for that matter. All he said was that Euphemia would lose her title if she went through with it and that was that and when the Black Rebellion occurred, he had not been in the least bit surprised and had dismissed it as a mundane affair, clearly not caring one bit that "Area Eleven" could have potentially been lost to the Empire. Schneizel concluded that either the Emperor had too much faith in the Britannian military and its abilities to deal with the rebellion or there was something else going on that explained his lack of caring. If it had not had been for Zero abandoning the rebellion, Schneizel knew that the Black Knights would have won and Britannia would have suffered its first major defeat since the Empire was established and that would have been a major blow to many people's pride. In fact, the fact that they had come so close to winning had shook many people up, which was why "Area Eleven" had been demoted to a Correctional Area with the Britannian populace coming down hard on the natives. Basically, they wanted to beat the idea of resisting Britannian rule out of them as they were fearful that Britannia was not as invincible as they initially thought and did not want their fears to become reality.

Anyway, Schneizel was surprised at the Emperor's reaction to Euphemia's disappearance. The Emperor had little to no love for any of his children and simply saw them as tools at his disposal. He especially had a low opinion of Euphemia due to her naivety and beliefs and at first, he had not so much as shed a tear when news of her death had reached his ears, but when news of her disappearance reached him, he seemed to become increasingly paranoid and ordered an investigation, though Schneizel had eventually managed to talk him out of an investigation when he brought up the fact that he had nothing to go on. With no physical evidence to link to the disappearance and no leads, Schneizel knew that he would be chasing a ghost and an investigation would be pointless as nothing would turn up. However, the Emperor seemed somewhat shocked and afraid. Maybe it was the fact that after the Black Rebellion, the Emperor had declared Euphemia responsible for the massacre and had been stripped of her Royal Title and executed by the Britannian Military and many people came to know her as, Princess Massacre. Perhaps the Emperor was afraid of her body turning up or that she was somehow alive, which would expose his cover story. It was a particularly valid fear as there was no body to confirm or deny that claim, but Schneizel knew that Euphemia was dead. The doctor had confirmed it and reported it to him. However, the question remained, who did steal her body and why?

He thought that perhaps it could have been Zero and the Black Knights wanting to make sure that Euphemia was really dead, but almost immediately dismissed that notion. Zero had been too preoccupied at the time and Schneizel knew that even he could not have been able to pull something like that off despite his tactical brilliance and even if he had sent a group of Black Knights to obtain the body, there was no possible way they could have gotten on board unnoticed, so he dismissed the Black Knights as possible culprits. After all, after they were defeated and the majority of their number were captured or killed, their bases had been raided and Euphemia's body had not been found. However, one thing that Schneizel found that he could agree with was the notion of teleportation as ridiculous as it sounded. Whoever snatched Euphemia's body had either some sort of technological device that was capable of teleporting them or they had a supernatural ability that enabled them to teleport. It was the only possible explanation he could think of. It sounded completely ridiculous, he would admit since teleportation was the stuff of science-fiction, but with nothing else to go on, it was all he could come up with. However, there was still the question of why and Schneizel did not know why, but somehow he knew that the answer would not present itself for a long while yet and so, for the time being, he chose to just let the mysterious incident go and get on with his plans and should the incident crop up again in future, he would deal with it when and if it did.

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Duel Academy Island, Duel Academy classroom<strong>

It was morning at Duel Academy, the day after Euphemia had handed Stella Harrington her first major defeat and every single First-year student sat in one of the many classrooms that was identical to the one they had entered the day before when Chancellor Sheppard greeted them. Dr Crowler was taking the class and needless to say, quite a few students were put off by his effeminate appearance. In fact if it was not for his flat-as-a-pancake chest, many of them would have undoubtedly mistaken him for a gender-confused woman. Since he was not duelling, he did not have his duel vest on, but instead wore what could only be described as a glamorised Obelisk Blue blazer that, though still a dark shade of blue was slight shade lighter than the blazers that the Obelisk Blue students wore. Like all the boys' Obelisk Blue blazers, it had a white outline, incluing the band round the top and white lines also marked the "shield" depicted at the front. However, what separated his blazer from those of the students was that aside from the ruffled pink high-rise collar and ruffled pink sleeve cuffs, the blazer also had brownish yellow gold trimmings over the tops of the shoulders and from the bottom of the armpits at the side was the same ruffled pink material sown into the blazer that went up to the sides of the shoulders and then moved behind into a curve at the back with the rim of the curve pointing downwards and a white outline at the back highlighting the border between the blue of the blazer and the pink material. Also, at the bottom, which was halfway between Crowler's knees and ankles, the blazer fanned out slightly, revealing the the inside was a dark reddish pink colour. The edges of the bottom part of the blazer went up til they reach the top of his abdomen at the side, just underneath the "sheild" and thenmoved downwards to the centre of Crowler's abdomen, meeting in the centre and minicking the bottom of the "sheild" with everything above that buttoned up. However, coming out from underneath the blazer, covering the centre of his lower abdomen was the same ruffled pink material sown into the blazer and the abundance of the colour, pink, especial in such a girlish light shade only served to increase the warines of the students.

In any case, the students also learned that he must be used to having uncomfortable stares thrown his way as he managed to get on with his job as if he was not aware of them, but they knew that he was just ignoring them. In any case, Zukasu Rikuguru currently stood up and was giving an explanation on the different types of cards in Duel Monsters.

"Duel Monsters cards can be grouped into three categories; Monsters, Spells and Traps," Zukasu explained, trying to ignore the glare that Stella was shooting at him as it was clear she was still sore about him taking the number-one spot at Duel Monsters Prep School, "However, those three categories can also be divided into sub-categories. Monsters can be divided into Normal, Effect, Ritual, Fusion and certain spell or trap cards can also be monsters or token monsters that can only be summoned through those particular spell or trap cards. Trap cards and be divided into Normal, Continuous and Counter Traps and Spell cards can be divided into Normal, Quick-Play, Field, Continuous, Equip and Rituals. So all in all, Monsters cards have five or six sub-categories, Trap cards have three sub-categories and Spell cards have six sub-categories."

"Yes, perfect, though it was more than I expected, but still, the correct answer," Crowler said, a bit surprised that Zukasu had actually said more than what was expected and from the look of it, he was not showing off, "Of course, I'd expect nothing less from the top graduate from Duel Monsters Prep School."

"Yes, Dr Crowler," Zukasu said in an obedient tone as he took his seat without being told to do so, earning another glare from Stella.

Stella glared at Zukasu furiously, still fuming over the fact that he was number one and not her. The number-one spot at Duel Monsters Prep School was supposed to have been hers and she remembered how disappointed and infuriated her parents had been after the news reached them back in Chelmsford. She was a Harrington and to be a Harrington was to be number one and if another threatened her position, then her parents had told her to deal with them and "rectify" the situation. Unfortunately, that line of thought brought her back to the events of the previous night in which she had lost to a "Pink-haired Floozy" by the name of Euphemia Felixton, who was near the bottom of the class with the other Slifers and Stella found herself glaring furiously at the pinkette as the pink-haired girl fought to stay awake.

"I'll get you for this," the cruel teal-haired girl thought as she tried desperately to burn a hole in Euphemia's back with her glare, "I'll make you regret the day you were born."

She still had a hard time coming to terms with it. She had done what she had usually done with her opponents; letting her take the lead before unleashing her wrath, but somehow, this floozy had managed to shake it off and remain calm, were as most of her other opponents would have started to break and not only that, but somehow, Euphemia had managed to pull a win before she had the chance to summon her more powerful monsters and if that was not enough, Euphemia was a Slifer Red; a reject, a duelling dud and Stella was an Obelisk Blue. The very idea that an Obelisk could be beaten by a Slifer was inconceivable. It was humiliating and left a bad taste in her mouth. Zukasu was one thing, but when the opponent who out-performed her was clearly inferior to her… it was just something that she was not prepared to accept.

"Only human," Euphemia's voice echoed tauntingly in her mind and Stella felt her rage increase.

That had been what Euphemia had said to her the previous night and not only that, but she had beaten her as well, believing that she had proven her point and it was that which infuriated Stella the most; the fact that she was only human as she had wanted to believe that she was above everyone else, but unfortunately, like everyone else, she had her limitations and she hated it. She wanted to believe that there was no limit to what she was capable of; that her abilities were infinite and for the longest time, she believed that they were, but graduating in third place at Duel Monsters Prep School had shattered that vision and she tried to salvage what she could, but unfortunately when Euphemia defeated her, she felt as if her whole world had come crashing down and that was something she would not stand for under any circumstances. She would make her vision of the world a reality, one way or another.

Anyway, once Zukasu had sat down, Dr Crowler started looking for another student in order to ask the next question.

"Okay then, now, who shall we have answer the next question, let me see," he said as his gaze suddenly fell upon Yumi, who was sitting next to Euphemia and it was clear that she was also fighting to stay awake, which caused him to frown, but he decided to give the Japanese girl a taste of humility to teach her a lesson, "You, Yumi Fujiharu!"

Yumi immediately jumped out of her seat at hearing Dr Crowler's raised voice and gulped as she stood at attention.

"Explain to the class what a Counter Trap is please," Crowler finished, wanting to see how much she actually knew about Duel Monsters.

"A Counter Trap…" Yumi gasped frightfully as she clearly had no clue what it was, "It's a trap card that counters something."

This earned a laugh from many the other students in the class; most specifically, the Ras and Obelisks and Yumi just sighed heavily, feeling absolutely deflated. She did of course know about Monster, Spell and Trap cards, but she did not take the time to learn about the different sub-categories as in her opinion, she did not see how they mattered.

"Even pre-school duellists know the answer to that one, you Slifer-Jap Whore!" Stella shouted down to the timid girl, causing her to flinch as she recognised the voice.

However, just then, the laughter stopped and mostly everyone in the classroom; regardless of the colour of their blazer who were Japanese and even some who were not Japanese; Euphemia included all turned their heads to glare at the teal-haired girl, feeling rather insulted at the racist remark that she had added to her insult.

"Miss Harrington, I will not permit such language in this classroom," Dr Crowler scolded as he joined in with the students as they glared up at her, "It is one thing to insult someone due to the colour of their coat, but when you start insulting someone due to their race… that's taking it too far."

"So what?" Stella scoffed uncaringly; not even making an attempt to defend herself as she made it clear that she was not scared of the authority he held over her, "It's not my fault that the Japs are disgusting barbaric heathens."

Crowler glared furiously at the cruel girl, shocked and rather appalled at the way she regarded him. He knew that she was from a highly rich and influential family and no doubt she believed that she could talk back and feel that she could get away with it and it infuriated him whenever students under his care believed that they were above him.

"Watch your tone, little missy," Crowler warned dangerously, "I won't have you speaking to me like that in this classroom. You're my student and you will behave yourself or else there will be dire consequences."

"Yeah, yeah," Stella said dismissively with a wave of her hand, "You forget that my uncle is on Duel Academy's board of directors and one complaint from me and you'll be out of a job, Teach."

She then flashed him a rather boastful "you can't do anything to me" smirk, which caused him to clench his fists as he restrained himself from lashing out at her, but then calmed down as he remembered something.

"Yes, I bet you do feel rather high and mighty having an uncle that can pull strings for you," he said in a calmer, dismissive tone, "However, you really shouldn't make fun of the Slifers like that as I saw your off-hour duel with Miss Felixton, which I have to say you lost and Miss Felixton is a Slifer herself. So, when you make fun of Slifers in general, you're really just making fun of yourself."

Stella's expression immediately changed to one of pure shock, anger and unrivalled fury as all the Slifers burst into laughter and Zukasu, James, Abigail and Terrance all also let out humorous chuckles as they remembered how Stella had lost to Euphemia.

"Oh yes, I'm very much aware of that," Crowler went on as his tone became more serious as he glared at the teal-haired girl, "And I'm also aware that you paid off Campus Security to ensure that your duel was not interrupted. You know that off-hour duelling is strictly prohibited."

This also got Euphemia's attention as she realised that she also had violated the rules, but Crowler just gave her a warm smile before looking back up at Stella with a hard glare.

"However, it would be useless to bring it up and since I'm sure that Miss Felixton here did not know that she was breaking the rules, I'll let it slide just this once," Crowler continued as he then gave both Stella and Euphemia a hard stare and continued in a seriously dire tone, "But I'll trust that it won't happen again!"

"Yes, sir," Euphemia said simply with a nod.

"I don't have to take this!" Stella shouted out in pure outrage as she stood up and rather violently barged her way past sitting in her path, not caring whether she hurt them or not, but once she reached the steps, she turned and glared down at Euphemia, "Don't think for one second that this is over between us because when we duel again, I can pretty much guarantee that your life will change for the worst."

Euphemia just shook her head, waving it off, causing Stella's rage to increase as it reminded her of the previous night and how Euphemia seemed to brush her aside like she was nothing, but she just turned on her heel and stormed out of the classroom.

"Well that was… unexpected," Crowler said as he recovered from his initial shock at Stella's actions, "Now where were we?"

"Counter Traps," Euphemia said simply as she turned to face him, "You asked Yumi what a Counter Trap was."

"Yes," Crowler said as Yumi looked at Euphemia in pure shock, believing that she had condemned her, but Euphemia just turned to look at her and gave her a reassuring chuckle before turning her attention back to Dr Crowler.

"Sir, if it's okay, perhaps I can answer the question," she suggested, causing Yumi to sigh in relief.

"Very well," Crowler agreed with a nod, "Please tell the class what a Counter Trap is."

Euphemia nodded and then stood up.

"A Counter Trap is a Trap card that primarily deals with preventing the activation of the effects of other cards," Euphemia explained with confidence in her voice, "Though there are a few exceptions; such as the trap, Intercept, which can only be activated when your opponent sacrifices one monster to summon another and it enables you to take control of that monster. Due to the nature of Counter Traps, the only cards capable of stopping them are other Counter Traps; like Trap Jammer can be activated to negate the activation of another trap card."

"Very good, Miss Felixton," Crowler said with a satisfied smile, though he was surprised that like Zukasu, she had also given more information than expected and the fact she was a Slifer did not bother him at all.

If it had have been three years ago, he knew that he would have been absolutely livid if a Slifer had managed to answer a question correctly. He used to occasionally humiliate the Slifers by asking them questions he knew they could not answer just for kicks like when he had asked Syrus what a Field Spell was three years previously and he could not answer and Crowler had felt rather pleased… that is until Jaden reminded him of how he had defeated him in pretty much the same manner he had reminded Stella of her own defeat at the hands of a Slifer. Needless to say, he had felt rather humiliated at Jaden's comment and that had been the start of his campaign to get Jaden expelled; all because he stood up for his friend that he had intentionally humiliated. This time however, he had reformed and he knew that if he had still been the elitist stuck-up snob he had been three years ago, then he would not have hesitated to report Euphemia for duelling off-hours and would have done everything in his power to make sure that she got expelled regardless of whether she knew the rules or not as he had seen Slifers as nothing more than talentless losers that did not deserve to be there and his campaign would have been fuelled by the fact that Euphemia had, not only beaten him, but had also defeated her Obelisk opponent as well. However, he was no longer like that and had let Euphemia and Stella off the hook; Euphemia because she clearly did not know that she was not supposed to duel off-hours and Stella because of her family and their influence.

Stella really infuriated him and it was clear that he did not want her here at Duel Academy as he knew she would just continue what she had been doing at the prep school, which amounted to scaring her opponents into pulling out and ensuring that they never duelled again. He had seen her record as well as learning how everyone who tried to deal with her in the past lost their jobs and their entire families had ended up facing financial ruin and it infuriated him that he was powerless to do anything about her. Like she had said, her uncle was on Duel Academy's board of directors and he knew that the Harrington Family had influences outside of Duel Academy, including the prep school she had hailed from. If they were not a member of the Harrington Family then they were definitely on their payroll. Like Stella had said, if he tried removing her, she would just get her uncle onto him and then he would be finished. He hated people whose families had influence or friends in high places who used that to get their way and that went back to four years ago; the year before Jaden arrived at Duel Academy when someone had accidentally brought up the issue of his gender be calling him mister and then when he became outraged, they made the mistake of addressing him as missus and he became so upset that he ended the Entrance Exams early, cutting a third of the applicants and that had caused him a major headache when some of the applicants' relatives chased him up and some of them were in positions of influences or had friends in positions of influence and he had spent the entirety of that year compensating for the applicants he had cut and had almost become bankrupt in the process. Since then, he had gained a deep loathing hatred for those who used their families' or friends' influence to get what they wanted.

On that note, he remembered during Jaden's third year learning that Jaden's parents worked for high-ranking business companies and though they were not rich, they were still in positions that had enough influence to hurt him had they discovered his campaign to get their son expelled, but what set Jaden apart from people like Stella was that he did not rely on his parents' influence to get what he wanted and clearly preferred to make it on his own without help from outside influences. After all, he had been a Slifer after all and did not move up to a better dorm, though he once got promoted to Ra Yellow, but turned it down to be with his friends. When he learned of Jaden's parents and their jobs, he had learned that they both did not pull strings for him and were adamant that he work to earn his way through life like everyone else, but he did not care in the slightest.

"And even though Euphemia's not like you, she shares many of those traits," Crowler thought as he looked at the pinkette who had gone back to trying to fight off sleep.

In truth, Euphemia's grades had earned her a place in Ra Yellow, but Jaden had requested that she be placed in Slifer Red instead and much to Crowler's surprise, Euphemia had agreed. Like Jaden, she had turned down a higher-ranked dorm for a friend. Crowler knew of the friendship she had struck with Yumi and to him, Yumi was like a female Syrus who had a sister who was like a female Zane. He knew that Yumi had been the reason for Euphemia's decision to start in Slifer Red. He also noted that like Jaden, Euphemia was currently falling asleep in class, but unlike Jaden who had just surrendered to his tiredness without putting up a fight, Euphemia fought to stay awake. At least she was trying to listen to what was being taught whereas Jaden just slept through most of his classes without a care in the world. She seemed to have this strangely calm and gentle aura of friendliness about her that could calm most people. He remembered during their duel at the Entrance Exams, how she had apologised when she believed she had offended him and asked if he was okay when she had knocked him down. He had been rather touched at that; touched at the fact that despite being put off by his effeminate appearance at first that she still did not seek to offend him and was concerned when she believed that he could have been hurt.

"Thank you, Euphemia," he thought as he flashed the pinkette a smile before moving on with the class.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Stella had stormed back to her room feeling absolutely livid and infuriated at Dr Crowler for daring to bring up her defeat to Euphemia. Of course, she knew that she was cutting class, but in truth she just did not care. She just had to get out of there as she could not face her peers feeling rather humiliated. She knew that Crowler did have a point. She had lost to a Slifer and by continuing to insult them, she was effectively insulting herself and that infuriated her. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of that humiliating defeat since it reminded her of Euphemia's attitude towards her in which she had totally blown her off.<p>

"I swear I'll make you pay for this, you Pink-haired Floozy," she thought as she sat on her bed and glared down at the floor, picturing Euphemia's image staring back up at her with the same dismissive look on her face she had given her the previous night, "I swear that you'll rue the day you decided to mess with Stella Harrington."

Of course, it had been Stella who had decided to target Euphemia, but Stella was so full of rage at things not going her own way that this piece of information had become lost to her and she was just looking for excuses to justify her own hatred; refusing to believe that she had been the one who started it. Her hatred was further amplified when she had seen Euphemia removing her cards for her duel disk and remembered that before she had lost, she had a facedown card that she had not used and even though she had only caught a glimpse of its image, she had seen enough to know that it was Magical Cylinder which deflected a monster's attack right back at its owner for a direct attack, so even if her Tonberry had been able to attack, she would have lost anyway and the thought of being in a no-win situation infuriated her even further.

"I don't believe it," she thought, shaking her head, "I would've lost anyway…? No, I refuse to accept it. I won't let this stand. I am the best and no one has the right to be superior to me. I'll crush all obstacles in my way and if anyone denies my way of life; I'll ruin them beyond any hope of recovery. I'll make my view of the world a reality no matter what. I'll transcend the human race itself and become a goddess and then no one will dare possess the audacity to look down on me again; especially you, you Pink-haired Floozy and you as well, you Mecha-freak. One way or another, I'll cease to be "only human" as you said."

Of course, Stella was not stupid. She knew that without any sort of plan, she was just inflating her own ego and trying to comfort herself. One would have passed off her speech as the ramblings of someone suffering from narcissistic rage that were just empty, but Stella was determined to find some way to make it a reality. She did not know how she was going to do that yet, but she was determined to find a way no matter what. It may be just a delusion to anyone else, but to her; it was her life's dream; to become the best and plunge the entire world into an eternal state of chaos and fear since she believed that it was the only way she could get ahead in life.

"But first, I'll have to deal with the Pink-haired Floozy," she thought as she calmed down and her expression became one of thought, "I'll not only defeat her and ruin her, but I'll also make sure she's out of this academy with no chances of ever rebuilding her life. That's the price you pay when you cross me. I dare say that you may even become suicidal."

A rather evil malicious smirk crossed her face at the thought of Euphemia killing herself as she pictured Euphemia killing herself in the most gruesome ways imaginable; some of which were too gruesome to properly describe and Stella felt a wave of ecstasy flow through her body as she trembled with excitement.

"I hope it's slow and painful," she thought as an idea suddenly flashed in her head as she remembered the rules regarding the Dorms after curfew and how she could use it as an opportunity to get Euphemia out of her hair, "All I have to do is pay a few people off and have some boys discover her at the Boys' Dorm and it's "so long, Floozy"; I'm brilliant."

* * *

><p>Later in another classroom, the First-year students had Professor Arenson, who was busy giving a lecture. Stella had yet to return after she had stormed out of Dr Crowler's classroom after Dr Crowler brought up her defeat to Euphemia. However, Euphemia was still fighting to stay awake and Yumi looked a bit unsure of herself as the professor continued his lecture, seemingly not noticing Euphemia's tiredness.<p>

"Um, eh, Euphie," Yumi said nervously as she looked at the pinkette while looking back at Arenson; fearful that he would discover her not paying attention to his lecture.

"Uh huh, what's up?" Euphemia said rather lazily and from the looks of her eyelids, they looked so heavy that they would close over at any second.

"Well, um, well you see, the thing is…" Yumi stammered in a hushed tone, so as not to interrupt Arenson as he spoke, "I just want to thank you for earlier; you know, when you volunteered to answer that question for me."

"Yeah, no problem," Euphemia said, clearly too tired to fully be paying attention, though she did notice Arenson stop and look over at them with a frown of disapproval, "Uh oh, looks like we've been caught."

Yumi gulped as she turned to face Arenson who just stared at them hard with an indistinguishable expression on his face. He neither looked angry nor upset, though it was clear that he disapproved of the fact they were talking over his lecture.

"I trust that your conversation was enlightening," he said in a steady tone.

"S-s-s-sorry, A-A-Arenson-sensei," Yumi stuttered as she apologised, "I-i-i-i-it w-won't happen a-a-again."

"Sorry, sir, but my friend here has issues to do with lack of confidence and she was just thanking me for helping her earlier," Euphemia spoke up; now fully awake as she came to Yumi's defence yet again.

Arenson looked both of them over for a moment; recognising them as the girl who complained to him about the poor quality of the food and the girl who had told her to just accept it from the welcoming dinner the previous day and he then flashed a rather understanding smile and nodded.

"Yes, well that's all good," he said with a dismissive laugh, "After all, you're new here and since I'm new here as well, I can understand how you must be feeling, but in future, please wait till after class to get those issues off your chest."

"Hai, sensei," Yumi said with a nod.

"Yes, sir," Euphemia said with a nod of her own.

Arenson just raised an eyebrow as he stared at Yumi for a moment, surprised that she had acknowledged his comment in Japanese and also since she addressed him as sensei, a Japanese honorific used to address teachers, but then again; Yumi was Japanese, so perhaps it was not all that surprising.

"Oh, by the way, I have a Stella Harrington on my register, but she seems to be absent," Arenson pointed out as he glanced up at an empty seat further up the classroom, "Is she sick or something?"

"No, sir, she decided to challenge Dr Crowler's authority when she took an insult too far and Dr Crowler said something that upset her and I'm guessing she's decided to cut classes for the rest of the day," Euphemia said, though she could not help but feel sorry for the cruel girl.

"I see," Arenson said with a nod.

"Good riddance," he mumbled to himself as he turned to resume his lecture, causing Yumi, who had heard him to give him a questioning look, but almost immediately put it to the back of her mind.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day largely went by uneventfully, though Euphemia continued to fight against her tiredness and many of the old teachers found themselves comparing her to Jaden, though they did note that unlike Jaden who did not bother to try and stay awake, Euphemia tried her absolute hardest to fight her tiredness. They even recalled the times Jaden would tie a piece of paper round his head with open eyes drawn on the front in an attempt to avoid getting caught, but his little ruse was rather obvious as the "eyes" did not look in any way convincing, plus his posture had also been a dead giveaway, but unlike Jaden, Euphemia had nodded in and out of sleep; whenever she realised that she was falling asleep, she would open her eyes and try to stay awake, though it was obvious that she was fighting a losing battle, but she did not give up.<p>

Anyway, after classes were over, Euphemia, Yumi, James, Terrance, Abigail and Zukasu all met up outside the main entrance to the main academy building.

"Hey, how's it hangin', girls?" James asked as he noticed the two Slifer girls.

"Hi there, J-Man," Euphemia greeted with a friendly wave and an equally friendly smile on her face as she and Yumi both emerged from the building.

"So how's things?" Terrance asked curiously, "Are you two getting settled in?"

"Uh huh," Yumi said timidly with a nod, still a bit unsure about the presence of the three Ras and Obelisk.

"Yeah, we had our welcoming dinner yesterday," Euphemia said in an enthusiastic tone.

"Yeah, if you could call it that," Yumi remarked bitterly, still not too happy at the lacking quality of the food.

"Well, Ra's welcoming dinner was great," Abigail said simply before her expression turned to a frown, "Though, I have to say that my hyperactive roommate is a pain in the ass."

She cringed just thinking about that girl, Alicia Riverton, the sugar-high nut as she had dubbed her. Like she had told her brother and James the previous day before Euphemia's duel with Stella, Alicia had not even realised that she was gone. Abigail also learned that Alicia liked to gossip a lot and after she had come back from the main duelling arena after the duel between Euphemia and Stella, like she had predicted, Alicia had still been in the room chatting away, though how on Earth she was able to talk for that length of time without getting a sore throat or even remain in the room for the same length of time without realising that her roommate had left was beyond her. She had been surprised when Alicia had then turned to face her and from how she was acting, it was as if she had not noticed she had left.

"The boys were separated from the girls at the welcoming dinner," Terrance said, bringing his sister out of her thoughts, "And the J-Man and I are roommates."

"Yeah, though Terry here's not thrilled at having a roommate," James said with a shrug, "But, he can deal with it and he's already laid out some ground rules."

"It's not you, J-Man, it's just that I prefer to be alone when I'm working," Terrance said, letting his friend know that he had nothing against him in general.

"Boy, Terry, you're so lucky," Abigail said, letting her jealousy be known, "My roommate's a different kettle of fish. She kept me up half the night reciting Peter Pan, Snow White and Cinderella and also told me about her trip to Paris's Disneyworld resort last year even when I told her that I didn't care."

"Well at least you managed to fight off sleep," Zukasu pointed out and then glanced at Euphemia, "Unlike you, Euphie."

"Yeah, I know," Euphemia said with a yawn, indicating that she was still tired, "It must've been the adrenaline from my duel with Stella; that and the fact that I could hardly wait till the next day."

"Speaking of Her Majestic, Queen Cruelty, has anyone seen her?" Zukasu said, feeling a wave of concern wash over him as he looked at Euphemia since he knew that Stella would try and take revenge for her defeat at some point.

"No, I haven't seen her since she stormed out of Dr Crowler's classroom," Yumi said as she gave her pink-haired friend a concerned look as she shared Zukasu's fears of Stella retaliating against Euphemia.

In fact, that had pretty much plagued her all night and because of it, she did not get much sleep. She remembered the way Stella had glared at Euphemia after Euphemia had beaten her and it terrified her to no end since she knew that Stella would not simply just try to simply defeat her in order to take her revenge. Yumi knew that Stella was planning on doing far worse to Euphemia and she feared that Euphemia could end up severely scarred psychologically if not killed as from the look in Stella's eyes; Yumi would not be surprised if Stella resorted to murder in order to take her revenge. Zukasu's story of how some of those who had messed with the Harrington Family in the past turning up dead under mysterious circumstances came to mind and she remembered when she finally did get to sleep the previous night, her dreams had been haunted by images of Euphemia psychologically broken or, in some cases, dead and those images becoming reality was what she dreaded the most. Euphemia was a kind and caring individual who had this aura of gentle friendlessness about her. She did not deserve that.

"She must've gone back to her room then," Zukasu replied to Yumi's statement with a sigh with a somewhat fearful look on his face, "She looked pretty infuriated when Dr Crowler brought up the issue of her defeat, so I wouldn't be surprised if she's confined herself for the rest of the day."

"It's really sad, you know," Euphemia said with a sad sigh as she thought about the cruel teal-haired girl she had defeated the previous night, "She's just a person who can't cope with reality; but I suppose when you're basically handed everything you've ever wanted for most of your life; becoming rather spoiled and selfish is just natural. I just don't understand why she enjoys hurting people. It's clear that she's not used to not getting what she wants."

"She's a loon," James said, scoffing uncaringly, "She gets kicks out of it, that's why she does it."

"But why?" Euphemia asked as she showed genuine concern for Stella's well-being, "Surely there must be a reason behind her sadistic nature. People just don't hurt people out of the blue and then decide they like doing it."

"I suppose you're right, but trying to get her to tell you is like trying to draw blood from a man made entirely of stone," Zukasu said with a shrug.

The six friends then started to make their way towards the Slifer Red Dorms and continued to talk, though they had moved on from the subject of Stella, though many of them were concerned about possible reprisals against Euphemia.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Girls' Dorm, Eileen and Hailey both sat in their room that they shared together worrying over Stella as they had not spoken to her since before she had lost to Euphemia and in truth; they were both concerned; not just for Stella, but for themselves as they knew what Stella was like when she was furious since she normally took it out on them in the past and both of them had wisely given her a wide berth all day; especially after Dr Crowler had caused her fury to flare up when he revealed that he knew about her duel with Euphemia.<p>

"Gee, do you suppose Stella's gonna be alright?" Eileen asked, lying on her bed as she turned her head to her left towards her friend who was sitting on the edge of her own bed.

"I dunno, what do I look like, a mind reader?" Hailey replied, though she did look concerned, "Anyway, I'm more worried about the two of us. You know what she's like whenever she gets riled up. We're the ones who usually end up becoming her punching bags."

Eileen nodded with a sigh.

"I still can't believe that that Slifer Whore actually managed to win though," Eileen said as a look of thought spread across her face, "No one's ever been able to defeat Stella in a duel before."

"Probably just dumb luck," Hailey said with a shrug, "Just a fluke like how she beat Dr Crowler at the Entrance Exams. She just ended up with a good hand, that's all."

"Anyway, at least Stella hasn't punished you yet for letting it slip that she ended up in third place at the prep school yet," Eileen said, trying to lighten the mood.

"And I suppose I have that Slifer Whore, Euphemia to thank for that," Hailey said with a rather unnerved frown.

It was true that Stella had not gotten round to Hailey's punishment and Hailey knew that it was due to Stella being caught up in the rage over her loss that she had not "punished" her and Hailey believed that she would not be surprised if Stella had completely forgotten about it altogether due to her rage, but the fact was that it was because the opponent that Stella had lost to was a Slifer Red that Hailey found disapproving. If it had been a fellow Obelisk or maybe even a Ra, she probably would have been more thankful, but the reason she had avoided her so-called punishment was due to a Slifer Red and Hailey believed that she was, in a way, in Euphemia's debt and the one thing she hated was owing those she considered inferior to her favours. It left a rather displeasing taste in her mouth and she found herself shaking her head in disgust.

"Well, at least we didn't have Stella barging in here last night after we ran from the arena," Eileen said with a light, yet nervous chuckle, "In fact, from the way she acted this morning, I think she completely forgot we were there."

"And once again, we're thankful to that Euphemia bitch," Hailey said in bitter disgust, "Gee, I really hate owing Slifers favours."

"But at least it got us off the hook with Stella," Eileen pointed out.

"Yeah, but the fact remains that she's a Slifer," Hailey said, still not please at the situation, "Either she's in the wrong dorm or she's threatening the status quo of this academy."

Just then, the door to their room opened, startling both girls and Hailey felt as if she had just about jumped out of her skin as she remembered Stella's threat of a punishment and her fears seemed well-founded as Stella walked into the room with a devious smirk on her face; not even asking if she was allowed in.

"Girls," she said simply with a rather excited edge to her tone, "We must plan for tomorrow night."

"Why?" Hailey asked curiously, though the fear of her "punishment" was still evident, "What are we going to do tomorrow night?"

"The same thing we do every night, Hailey," Stella replied sarcastically as she recited the speech of a certain cartoon character from an old cartoon show, "Try to take over the world. No, tomorrow night's going to be that Floozy's last night here and I can pretty much guarantee that when I'm through with her, she'll be lucky if she can even salvage just a spec of her dignity."

The two other girls cringed in fear as they both felt shudders run up and down their spines.

"Now then, let's go," Stella commanded as she turned to leave, "We must make the necessary preparations."

Both Eileen and Hailey got up from their beds and followed Stella as she left the room, both feeling a bit shaken and; though they would not admit it, a little worried for Euphemia.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and her friends; they all arrived back at the Slifer Dorm to find Blair happily chatting away with a Ra Yellow student with a slightly dark skin tone, greyish green eyes and black hair styled in six dreadlocks; three at either side of his head. He also looked pretty muscular; indicating that he must regularly work out in the gym, but the six friends found his choice of clothes rather strange. He wore black combat boots with straps over the tops of his feet and round his ankles. He also had brown baggy trousers with a deck-holder at his left side. However the majority of his trousers were coloured light brown with a darker shade of brown dominating the bottom of his legging and the borderline looked rather jagged. He also had a black leather belt round his waist with a rectangular silver buckle at the front with two diagonal lines within it going down towards one another; giving the impression of a pair of angry eyes and the belt was held in place by belt loops. He also wore a green sleeveless shirt and his blazer, which was also sleeveless over it and what surprised the group was that his blazer looked more orange than yellow. He also had a black necklace rope round his neck with what looked like a small dinosaur skull hanging from it and two sharp teeth at either side. He also adorned six white armbands; three on each arm that were so close together that they touched and did not expose any flesh between them. However, his most bizarre feature as the bandanna he had tied round his head that was the same orange-yellow colour as his blazer, the front of it had been painted brown with a jagged borderline with red eyes at either side, two diagonal lines at the front, which was also shaped like the top of a snout and what looked like shape teeth attacked to the bottom of the front of the bandanna. He also had four teeth attached to strings; two attached to either side of his bandanna and hung at the sides of his head. All in all, his bandanna had been styled to look like the top half of the head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.<p>

"Wow, what's with that guy?" James asked in astonishment, "And people think the J-Man's weird?"

Both Blair and the boy turned to face them after hearing James's comment, having been caught a bit off guard.

"Oh, hi guys," Blair said to Euphemia and Yumi, talking specifically to her two roommates before turning her attention to the boy she had been talking to, "This is Tyranno Hassleberry, one of Jaden's old friends, not to mention a third-year."

"Nice to meetcha," Hassleberry greeted with a Southern accent as he extended his hand to Euphemia, who immediately took it, "So you're Euphemia Felixton, the girl the Sarge recommended?"

"Sarge… you mean Jaden, right?" Euphemia said, a bit confused at Hassleberry's comment, though she still shook his hand.

"I see you brought friends," Blair pointed out, noticing the three other Ras and Obelisk and then introduced herself, "I'm Blair Flannigan, Euphemia and Yumi's roommate. I know I look a bit young to be here, I can assure you that I'm here legally."

"Nice to meet you," Zukasu said with a nod, "I'm Zukasu Rikuguru."

"Wow, you're the guy Euphie called Suzaku," Blair said in astonishment, causing Euphemia to wince in displeasure and Zukasu nodded after recovering from his shock after being taken aback by her statement.

"Huh, hold up, what's this about?" Terrance enquired curiously, "Suzaku, isn't that an anagram of Zukasu?"

"What happened, you never told us about this," James said, clearly stunned.

"Yesterday after Euphie and I met Stella and she left, Zukasu here came to warn us about her brutal nature and when Euphie first saw him, she called him Suzaku and yet, she has no memory of doing so," Yumi explained with a sigh, shaking her head.

"Really?" Abigail asked, looking at Euphemia curiously.

"Uh huh," Euphemia said with a dissatisfied groan, clearly not too pleased that that bit of information had gotten out, "Seriously, I don't remember calling him that, though I have to say; the name suits him somehow and every time I picture him, he has a lighter skin tone."

Zukasu raised a curious eyebrow at this, though he had to admit, the name, Suzaku did sound familiar to him as well and since yesterday; whenever he thought about it, he could not help but think of himself whenever the name, Suzaku popped into his head. It was just another reason why he felt drawn to Euphemia. He did not know why, but he felt that the two of them were just simply made for one another.

"Yes, well, this all well and good, but can we get back to the matter at hand?" Blair said as she motioned towards Hassleberry who had remained silent throughout the entire discussion.

"Yes," Euphemia said in agreement with a nod of her head, "So, you're an old friend of Jaden's?"

"That's right, ma'am," Hassleberry said with a nod, "I arrived here at this here barracks two years ago and met the Sarge."

"He likes to talk as if he's in the military," Blair said, looking a bit embarrassed, "He believes he's a drill-sergeant."

"What're you talkin' 'bout Private Flannigan?" Hassleberry asked as he turned to face Blair.

"See what I mean?" Blair sighed, shaking her head at Hassleberry's statement and the others simply nodded with rather nervous laughs.

"Anywho, I just have one request for you, ma'am," Hassleberry said as he turned to address Euphemia.

"Uh huh," Euphemia said, having a fair idea of what he wanted from her.

"Duel me," Hassleberry said simply, "I simply wish to test your skills on the battlefield to see how well the Sarge's judgement was."

Everyone else's eyes widened in astonishment as Hassleberry's challenge.

"I thought as much," Euphemia said with a nod and then smiled, "Okay, challenge accepted."

Hassleberry chuckled as he produced his duel disk from inside his blazer, which was identical to Euphemia's, only it had yellow markings to indicate that he was a Ra Yellow student.

"Don't worry, ma'am, even if you lose, I won't hold anything against you," Hassleberry said assuredly with a smile that told her that he meant it.

"Euphie won't lose," Yumi boasted as she gave Hassleberry a sure look, "After all, she beat Dr Crowler and that psychotic bimbo, Stella Harrington."

"What, the Stella Harrington?" Hassleberry said as his eyes widened in shock as he gave Euphemia a questioning look.

"If you mean this really mean chick who likes to traumatise and brutalise her opponents to the point where they never want to duel again, then yes, that's her," James replied with a nod, "Teal hair, cruel greyish blue eyes, you can't miss her."

"Wow," Hassleberry said in pure disbelief as he had also heard of Stella and how she had pretty much psychologically traumatised her opponents while in Duel Monsters Prep School, "You're one lucky gal."

"Well, I actually managed to get the cards I needed to win before she had a chance to summon her more powerful monsters," Euphemia said truthfully, "She generally likes to let her opponents take the lead; let them believe they've won and then take out the lion's share of their life points in one fell swoop before throwing her taunts around, but I wasn't affected and her strategy cost her that time."

"But still, to survive a duel with a fiend like that… you're incredibly lucky," Hassleberry said with a sense of pride.

"Lucky… Stella's now out for revenge and who knows when she's going to make her move," Yumi said as her worry over Euphemia's psychological state resurfaced, "And if her expression after she was defeated was anything to go by, when she does make her move… the next time she and Euphemia duel, she'll be a lot more vicious than before."

"That's right, I can vouch for her," Zukasu said with a nod and a serious look on his face, "I know her. I've known her since prep school. I'm actually one of two boys who scored higher than her at our graduation, so as you can imagine, she doesn't like me that much either."

"Anyway, enough about that, let's get this duel over with," Euphemia said in excitement, "Just wait there till I get my duel disk."

Hassleberry just nodded as Euphemia turned and went into her room to fetch her duel disk.

"Remember that I don't intend to go easy on you just because you're a girl!" Hassleberry called out, "When we meet on the battlefield, we'll be at war."

"Understood!" Euphemia's voice called back from inside the room.

"If my understanding about Duel Monsters ancient history is correct, then Duel Monsters was originally used as a method of waging war long before it became the card game it is today," Terrance said as he remembered hearing about how the Ancient Egyptians played similar games; though like he had said, those games were mostly methods of warfare rather than actual games.

"Please tell me that you don't believe in that supernatural mumbo jumbo?" Yumi said in disbelief as she clearly did not believe in anything that was supernatural.

"Why not?" Abigail asked, staring at the Japanese brunette questioningly, "All stories must have come from somewhere and no matter how bizarre they sound; you'll generally find that there's a seed of truth in them somewhere, even if the majority of it is just fantasy."

Yumi just trembled at that as she had to admit that the Richardson twins did bring up a good point. She had also heard rumours of strange events occurring at Duel Academy spanning back four years, which started with rumours that several students had mysteriously vanished from a now-disused dorm. Of course, Duel Academy claimed that they were studying aboard on some sabbatical program, but when the parents of the missing students tried pushing further, Duel Academy clammed up and refused to tell them what schools their children were attending and even to this day, no one knew what happened to them and only two of the missing students reappeared; one three years ago during the latter half of the semester and the other just re-emerged just last year. However, neither of them were talking on the fates of their classmates and Yumi had to admit that it scared her a little.

There was also an incident the previous year when the world's populace all seemed to have fallen asleep at once. It was rather bizarre as Yumi remembered minding her own business and then, the next thing she knew, she was one the floor, waking up and to her astonishment, her parents were also in the same predicament as her and not just them; but the entire neighbourhood as well. It had been a bit of a scare for her since she vaguely remembered being attacked by someone before she had "woken up" and at first, she believed she had dreamt it, but now, the more she thought about it, the more she became convinced that it was not a dream. Not only that, but she also recalled that when she had awoke, it was dark outside and according to her clock, it was only mid-afternoon, when it should be light outside; though there were reports of a strange worldwide eclipse of the sun by some celestial object that had mysteriously vanished. She also seemed to recall vague images of herself failing in her hopes and dreams and reliving them over and over again and the more she tried to pass them off as dreams, the more she became convinced of the opposite. Obviously whatever had happened to her and the rest of world had been wiped from her memories… well, not wiped, but suppressed. It was not that hard to guess that something blocked the memories of their experiences while they were "asleep", but Yumi tried to pass it off as some freak event that science was just too primitive to explain and would be able to explain it in time as it made its advancements and was not caused by the supernatural.

"Okay, you have a point there," she said in response to Abigail's statement, though it was obvious that she was not pleased.

"You're thinking of what happened last year, aren't you?" James said with a serious look on his face and Yumi nodded.

"Yep," she admitted.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, standing on the branch of a nearby tree, Jaden watched the situation unfold and smiled. He had been watching the whole time and in truth, he was really wanting to see how well Euphemia would fare against Hassleberry. What Euphemia and her friends did not know was that Jaden had approached Hassleberry the previous night after Euphemia had defeated Stella and had told him to duel Euphemia and defeat her. His reason; he wanted to remind Euphemia that she was not unbeatable and he believed that if she kept winning duels all the time, then she would get so caught up in her wins that she would forget about the losses she suffered before she entered Duel Academy and ultimately, the lessons she had learned from them. Jaden wanted to ensure that she would not become like those snobs in Obelisk Blue; being quite conceited and going into every duel believing she had already won before the first card was played because people like that generally found that they could not deal with it when they eventually suffer their first loss and usually fall to narcissistic rage and he did not want Euphemia being one of those people. Of course, he knew there was the possibility that Euphemia might win, but it was something he was willing to risk as if Hassleberry won, then he knew the risk would be worth it as Euphemia would keep her heart in the right place.<p>

Jaden remembered how when he was at Duel Academy how he hardly ever lost. In fact he only ever lost three duels… well four if he counted that one with Yugi in which he was sent into the past into an alternative timeline where a second Battle City Tournament had been held and he was pitted against a younger Yugi and his mission was regain his love and passion for duelling, which he had lost during his trip into that alternative dimension. Even though he lost that duel, he regained his love and passion for duelling; so the purpose of the duel was not to win, but through the course of the duel, he was to slowly regain what his experiences in the alternative dimension had taken from him.

He remembered his first loss at Duel Academy, which had been to Syrus's older brother, Zane, though had Jaden managed to last just one more turn, he would have won as he already had the cards needed to win in his hand; but unfortunately could not play them that turn. His second loss was to the Duel Monsters Spirit of Kaibaman, who duelled him using a copy of Seto Kaiba's deck and Kaibaman had duelled him during the trouble with the Shadow Riders when Jaden had become afraid of losing to them since it meant losing his soul and Kaibaman had duelled him to teach him that losing was nothing to worry about, so long as he had the courage to accept the fact that he had been defeated and his third loss had been to Pro-League Duellist, Aster Phoenix, who had handed Zane his first real defeat using a copy of Jaden's deck and though Jaden had managed to defeat the monster that defeated Zane, Aster then switched to using his true deck; the Destiny Heroes and defeated him, though Jaden managed to defeat him in a rematch, but not for revenge. He had just come back to Duel Academy from Neo-Space with some new cards and was eager to take them for a test-drive. All other duels he did not win either ended in a draw like his rematch with Zane and a duel against Axel Brodie when he was taken over by the Supreme King or ended with no result like his duel with Yubel in which he used Super Polymerization to fuse his soul and Yubel's together after he learned of Yubel's past with a previous incarnation of himself in an alternative dimension; the same alternative dimension he had arrived in during the first half of his third year.

"I only hope Euphie has the courage to stay on the right path," he thought to himself as he knew that Euphemia would eventually be dragged into the dark magical side of Duel Monsters, "Which is why I arranged for this duel. If Hassleberry wins, hopefully it'll keep Euphie from falling into darkness."

He felt a vibration in his trouser pocket and knew that his cell phone was ringing; so he reached into his pocket and took it out.

"Talk to me," he said simply as he continued to watch the scene unfold in front of him.

"Hi, Jaden, it's me," Axel's voice came from the other end, "You know that Rikuguru kid that you asked me to look into?"

"Yeah, what have you found out?" Jaden asked as his gaze travelled over to Zukasu, giving him a suspicious look.

"Like I said, everything I've uncovered on his past checks out," Axel explained, though Jaden knew that there was a "but" in there somewhere, "However, upon looking into his duelling history, it seems that his deck isn't listed on any of the Duel Monsters registries. In other words, if what I've uncovered is true, then the majority of his cards aren't real Duel Monsters cards. He checks out, but his cards don't."

Jaden's eyes narrowed at hearing this as his gaze became more fixed on Zukasu, though inwardly he was smiling as he finally had something that could unravel the mystery behind this Suzaku Kururugi look-alike.

* * *

><p>Back over at the Slifer Dorm, Euphemia was now standing opposite Hassleberry after she had come out of her room with her duel disk.<p>

"Okay, are you ready to start this war?" Hassleberry asked as he activated his duel disk and drew five cards.

"Of course," Euphemia said as she activated her own duel disk and drew five cards, "Let's get this over with."

"GAME ON!" they both shouted in unison.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

"Let the war commence," Hassleberry said as he drew his sixth card, indicating that he wanted to have the first turn.

His hand consisted of Black Stego, Jurassic Heart, Jurassic World, Gilasaurus, Miracle Jurassic Egg and a second Gilasaurus that he just drew.

"Okay for my first wave, I call on Gilasaurus to report for duty," he went on as he slapped a card down on the far right monster space and a small human-sized brown tyrannosaurus with long arms and three fingers appeared on the field, "And that there was a special summon, so I call forth on another Gilasaurus."

He then slapped the second Gilasaurus (1400/400x2) down on the far left monster space and a dinosaur identical to the first one appeared on the field to Euphemia's right where as the first one was to her left.

"And that there was another special summon," Hassleberry went on explaining, "Now if you had monsters in your graveyard, then you'd have been able to have called them back to the field, but unfortunately for you, you don't. However, since those two monsters were special summons, I can still call yet another monster to the field, so, Black Stego, front and centre."

He then reach for his Black Stego (1200/2000) card and slapped it down on the middle monster space and then what appeared to be a dark greenish black stegosaurus with red plates on its back and sharp teeth appeared on the field and roared at Euphemia.

"And I'll finish off with this card facedown and that'll do it for now," Hassleberry said as he inserted his Jurassic Heart into a spell/trap slot and its holographic representation appeared on the field.

* * *

><p>"Three monsters in the one turn, that's cheating," Yumi protested from the side-lines as she glared at Hassleberry.<p>

"No it's not," Zukasu said, shaking his head.

"What?" Yumi said in disbelief, unable to comprehend what was going on, "But you can only summon one monster per turn."

"You can only normal summon one monster per turn," Terrance replied before Zukasu could, "Those two extra monsters were special summons."

"You see, Gilasaurus's effect allows it to be special summoned when it's in its owner's hand," Abigail spoke up, continuing on from her brother, "In exchange, the opponent can special summon one monster from their graveyard, but unfortunately, Euphie doesn't have any since she's yet to have her turn."

"Black Stego was his normal summon," Zukasu explained, continuing from where Abigail left off, "The two Gilasaurus monsters were special summons. It is possible to summon more than one monster per turn, but the extra monsters have to be summoned to the field by special means and unlike normal summoned monsters, they can be sacrificed on the turn that they're summoned. A normal summoned monster can't be sacrificed on the turn that it was summoned and a special summoned monster can't be sacrificed if you've already normal summoned a monster on the same turn as it would count as two normal summons."

"Oh, I see," Yumi said, nodding her head as she finally understood, "So if he has a high-level monster in his hand, then he couldn't sacrifice his Gilasaurus monsters as he already summoned Black Stego and it was the normal summoned monster for that turn."

"Yes, you're catching on," Terrance said with a smile, "However, if he did not summon Black Stego, then he would have been able to have sacrificed one or both of his special summoned monsters to summon a high-level monster and that high-level monster would have been his normal summon for the turn."

James, who had remained silent just stared at the dinosaurs and then started humming the main theme for the Jurassic Park movies.

"So I gather he's a dino-duellist," Yumi said simply, changing the subject.

"Uh huh," Abigail said as she looked a bit surprised at the sharp teeth on the Black Stego, "Though, I was under the impression that stegosauruses were herbivores; not carnivores."

"Maybe some people went back in time to the Jurassic Era and did some sort of gene splicing experiment on it," James suggested with a laugh before going back to humming the Jurassic Park theme.

"Maybe it was InGen," Zukasu joked in response to James's statement, making a Jurassic Park reference.

"Could be," James replied with a shrug.

* * *

><p>Euphemia groaned at her predicament. It had just been the first turn of the duel and Hassleberry already had three monsters on his field. Euphemia knew the rules of the game and knew that he only had three monsters because of the two Gilasauruses special ability that allowed them to be special summoned from their owner's hand. The only thing that prevented Hassleberry from attacking was that it was the first turn of the duel, which had no battle phase and conducting a battle phase on the first turn of the duel when your opponent had yet to start their first turn was considered an illegal move.<p>

"Okay, three monsters and one facedown," she thought to herself as she drew a card and looked to see what cards she had in her hand.

She then groaned as she saw that she had Spellbinding Circle, Magical Cylinder, Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, Copycat, Mirror Force and Magician's Valkyria, which she had just drawn.

"Gee, of all the times to start off with a bad hand," she thought with a groan, "Oh well, no use complaining, I suppose. Just have to make-do with what I've got."

"What's wrong, ma'am?" Hassleberry asked, giving Euphemia a concerned look, "You don't look too pleased. Did you start off with a bad inventory?"

"This is war and you're concerned for the enemy's well-being?" Euphemia said with a short laugh, "I'll be fine. I'll make-do."

Hassleberry nodded with a smile as Euphemia reached for the Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, which displayed an image of six small pipes of different lengths tied together by string with one side with all the pipe ends together at the same bit and the other ends ending a different points, making a diagonal ascending arc from left to right and above that were the images of a regular Kuriboh, Winged Kuriboh and Horned Kuriboh against a whitish pink background. It was an upgraded version of the original Flute of Summoning Kuriboh card that was released along with Horned Kuriboh to include Horned Kuriboh in its effect as the original only covered Kuriboh and Winged Kuriboh.

"I play the spell card, Flute of Summoning Kuriboh, which allowed me to either add a Kuriboh, Winged Kuriboh or Horned Kuriboh from my deck to my hand or summon them from my deck directly onto the field," she said as she inserted the card into a spell/trap slot and a holographic life-sized version of the card appeared on the field and the "flute" instruction in the card came out of the card and then Euphemia took out her deck and selected Horned Kuriboh from the pile and then placed it on the middle monster space and Horned Kuriboh (300/200) appeared on the field, surprisingly in attack mode.

It looked like a regular Kuriboh, only it had two curved green ninety-degree horns pointing upwards sticking out the sides of its head.

"Whooow," a noise familiar to Euphemia came and to Euphemia's surprise, it had come from the Horned Kuriboh and she could not help but recall hearing the same noise at the Entrance Exams on two occasions; the first was when Dr Crowler used Confiscation to send it to the graveyard and the second time was after she had defeated Crowler and looked at the card and then it appeared to wink at her.

"It was you," she said to the Kuriboh aloud, earning strange looks from everyone present and to her surprise, the Kuriboh actually turned round and bounced up and down as if nodding, "Okay, this is just weird, are holograms supposed to do that?"

* * *

><p>"Okay, what's going on, what's with Euphie all of a sudden?" Yumi said as she observed the situation and needless to see, she had not seen Horned Kuriboh turn and nod to Euphemia.<p>

All she saw was the hologram still facing down Hassleberry's monsters.

"Oh man, she must be hallucinating," James said, trying to come up with an explanation to explain Euphemia's behaviour.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia, she just shook her head, deciding to leave it for now.<p>

"Anyway, never mind about that, on with my turn," she said and Hassleberry smiled, glad that she was putting her encounter with Horned Kuriboh aside for the time being.

He may not be able to see Duel Monster Spirits himself, but he knew they existed as he had been to dimensions where Duel Monster Spirits were solid and even those who normally could not see them in the material world could see them. Anyway, it told him that Euphemia had the power to see and communicate with them, though she clearly did not know it yet.

"Since my summoning of Horned Kuriboh was a special summon, I can summon Magician's Valkyria to the field in attack mode," Euphemia said as she placed her Magician's Valkyria card on the monster space immediately to the left of the one Horned Kuriboh occupied and the female magician appeared on the field looking ready to attack.

Euphemia then looked at her hand; more specifically at the three trap cards she had, trying to figure out which would be the best ones to use. Of course, she could place all three down at once, but Hassleberry had a facedown card and it worried her as it could potentially have the power to destroy all three at once.

"Well I suppose I could use just one and then keep the other two in reserve," she thought as she analysed the situation, "Or I could just set all three at once, but then, he may activate his facedown which would be rather inconvenient for me if it destroys all three at once."

"Having a bit of trouble deciding your next course of action, are we?" Hassleberry asked with a hint of impatience in his voice, "Just make a move already."

Euphemia nodded and then reached for her Mirror Force trap card, deciding that it was the best as, not only did it deflect a monster's attack back at it; destroying it and all monsters under its owner's control, but it also dealt damage if the attacking monster's attack points were higher than any other monsters under its owner's control. If she used Mirror Force when a Gilasaurus attacked, then the difference between that Gilasaurus's attack points and Black Stego's attack points would be dealt to Hassleberry as damage, meeting, he'll lose two hundred life points, but would not suffer damage from the destruction from of his Gilasauruses as they both possessed the same number of attack points, but it would be perfect for providing an opening for an attack come her next turn.

"I then place one card facedown," she announced as she inserted the Mirror Force card into a spell/trap slot and the hologram of the facedown appeared on the field, "Now, Magician's Valkyria, attack his Black Stego with Mystic Scepter Blast."

Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800) nodded and then twirled her staff and fired an energy ball at Black Stego, but Hassleberry just grinned as Black Stego automatically dropped into a defensive position as Hassleberry turned its card from a vertical position to a horizontal position.

"Sorry, ma'am, but Black Stego's special ability allows him to switch to defence whenever he's the target of enemy attack," Hassleberry explained as Black Stego easily batted Valkyria's energy ball away with its spiked tail seeing as how its defence points were higher than Valkyria's attack points.

**Euphemia**: 3600 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

Euphemia groaned at that as she knew that seeing as how Black Stego had two thousand defence points whereas Valkyria only had sixteen hundred attack points and she had the difference dealt to her as damage. On a positive note though, at least she did not lose Valkyria since a monster attacking a monster in defence mode with fewer attack points than the defending monster's defence points was not destroyed by the defending monster despite its owner receiving damage. She had targeted Black Stego because it had the least number of attack points of the three monsters currently out on the field and would have dealt more damage to Hassleberry's life points.

"Since Horned Kuriboh's too weak to take out any of your monsters, I'll end my turn," Euphemia said, though she gave Horned Kuriboh an apologetic look; apologising for referring to it as weak.

Horned Kuriboh just bounced up and down in acknowledgement and somehow Euphemia knew that it accepted her apology. However, if one were to analyse the situation, they would have believed that she had forgotten to switch Horned Kuriboh to defence mode, but in fact Euphemia had left him in attack mode on purpose to bait Hassleberry into attacking so she could spring her trap.

* * *

><p>"Gee, the J-Man says that Euphie's off to a bad start," James said as he analysed the situation.<p>

"Must've had a bad opening hand," Terrance summarised simply, "But then again, she is up against a third-year. He no doubt has more experience."

"Dr Crowler had more experience and Euphie defeated him when he was using his own personal deck," Yumi pointed out.

"Yes, back Dr Crowler went for his most powerful monster right away," Zukasu said as he analysed the situation, "That could have been his mistake. The most effective means of duelling is to save your stronger monsters for later on or for emergency situations. Using them right away is good and all, but its best to wait till later on in the duel to use them since by then your opponent will have fewer cards in their deck and any cards capable of stopping them would have already been used. The more you prolong summoning your strongest monsters, the less likely it is that your opponent will be capable of stopping them as there's a good chance they'll have used up perfectly good cards that may have been able to stop them. That's where Dr Crowler went wrong. If he had dragged the duel out, forcing Euphie to use more spells and traps, he probably would have won."

"That's good and all and I understand what you're saying, but even if you prolong summoning your strongest monster, your opponent may still have cards capable of turning the duel around in their favour," Yumi pointed out.

"True," Zukasu acknowledged with a nod, "I didn't say that the opponent would be powerless, but more rather; weakened. True they may still have cards capable of saving them, but the longer you put off summoning your most powerful monsters, the less likely that is to happen. After all, there are only so many cards in a deck and once they're used, that's it unless they play a card that allows them to use a used card again, but then the card that allowed them to reuse that card would be gone."

"It's like this, Dr Crowler summoned his strongest monster when Euphie still had most of her cards," Abigail explained while looking over at Euphemia, "Because of it, Euphie was more than capable of fighting back. What Zukasu is trying to say is that the point of putting off summoning your strongest monster until you feel ready to end the duel is to weaken your opponent's chances of resisting. In a fight; especially against a stronger opponent, the most effective strategy is to wear them down before you come out fighting. If you go for the finish straight away, then the chances are; you'll just tire yourself out and will be unable to fight back when your opponent starts going on the offence. Getting your opponent to use up their cards in Duel Monsters is similar to wearing your opponent down in a fight and summoning your strongest monster at the right time is the same as going in for the finish."

"I think I understand," Yumi said with a nod as she gave Euphemia a concerned look.

* * *

><p>Hassleberry then drew a card, which turned out to be Fossil Dig, which caused him to frown.<p>

"Not much I can do with this card," he thought as he looked at his hand to see what else he could use and then noticed that he had Jurassic World and Miracle Jurassic Egg still in his hand.

"Not what I was hoping for, but while on the battlefield, you must make-do with what you've got," he went on in his thoughts and then his look hardened, "After all, not everything goes your own way on the battlefield and you must learn to improvise if you want to survive."

"Okay, Miracle Jurassic Egg, you're on defence, so just sit tight for now," he said as he slapped the card onto the monster space in between Black Stego and the Gilasaurus on the right and huge white egg appeared on the field.

This was Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) and Euphemia looked in awe as it had a high number of defence points and no attack points.

"I take it that your egg has some sort of special ability that makes up for its lack of attack points," Euphemia said, to which Hassleberry nodded.

"That's right, but you'll have to wait till you see what it is," he informed her, "In the meantime, I'll play the field spell, Jurassic World, which gives all dinosaur, winged beast and reptile-type monsters three hundred extra attack and defence points, thus strengthening their offensive and defensive capabilities."

He then showed Euphemia a spell card with the image of a lush green forest at the bottom of a cliff that looked circular in shape; implying that the forest was in a circular valley, but at the top of the cliff in the background was a volcano billowing out white smoke. He then inserted the card into the field-spell slot that opened up at the end of his duel disk to his right and then the scenery round about them changed to a near-identical representation of the image on the card, with both of them standing in the middle of the lush green forest. The two Gilasauruses (1700/700x2) and Black Stego (1500/2300) roared as they felt their strength increase, though the Miracle Jurassic Egg (300/2300) just remained silent as it was just an egg.

"Great, not only has he got four monsters on the field, but he's also managed to strengthen them with just one card," Euphemia thought as she knew her situation looked bleak, "Oh well, at least I still have my Mirror Force trap card."

Hassleberry then switched his Black Stego card from its horizontal position back into a vertical position, causing the holographic stegosaurus to rise into an attack position.

"I first switch my Black Stego from defence to attack mode," he announced as he spotted Horned Kuriboh, "Now then, relieve the enemy of her weakest recruit; namely that horned dust ball over there."

To emphasise his point, he pointed at Horned Kuriboh who just let out an insulted "Whooow" at having heard the military-talking dino-duellist.

Black Stego roared and then charged at Horned Kuriboh.

"Not so fast," Euphemia said as she pushed a button on her duel disk and her facedown card rotated ninety degrees, revealing that it was a trap card with the image of an orange energy beam making contact with an invisible shield, the shield itself was had a white outline to show that it was there, "My Mirror Force trap card deflects your monster's attack right back at your monsters; so I suppose the term, "shot by friendly fire" would be the most appropriate term to use here."

"Yes, normally that would be the case, but another effect of my Jurassic World field spell is that I can negate the trap card effects that target any dinosaur, winged beast or reptile-type monsters," Hassleberry said as the holographic version of Euphemia's Mirror Force card shattered, causing her to remove it from her duel disk and insert it into the graveyard slot.

"No way," she said in shock.

"And even if I hadn't played Jurassic World, my facedown card, Jurassic Heart would have dealt with your trap anyway," Hassleberry said in his thoughts, "So either way; your trap would have failed. I'll just spring it later should you manage to destroy Jurassic World."

Black Stego reached Horned Kuriboh and then veered to the right and swung its spiked tail at the poor Kuriboh, impaling it before it shattered into pieces and Euphemia removed it from its place and inserted it into the graveyard slot while groaning as she had left it in attack mode, meaning she had just been dealt damage.

**Euphemia**: 2400 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

"But I'm not done yet," Hassleberry went on, "Gilasaurus, it's your turn to wage an attack on the enemy."

The Gilasaurus on the left ran towards Valkyria and with seventeen hundred attack points, it was just strong enough to take Valkyria out. Valkyria looked shocked as the downsized tyrannosaurus charged her and then proceeded to sink its teeth into her left shoulder, causing her to scream before she shattered, indicating that she had been destroyed.

**Euphemia**: 2300 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

"Now, Gilasaurus number two, engage the enemy in a direct assault," Hassleberry said to the second Gilasaurus, who then charged directly at Euphemia before she had a chance to recover from losing Valkyria.

Euphemia only groaned as the Gilasaurus bit down into her shoulder, feeling the phantom pain, but not drawing any blood.

**Euphemia**: 600 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

* * *

><p>"Oh my, Euphie!" Yumi called out in concern, "Are you okay?"<p>

* * *

><p>"I'm fine," Euphemia said with a nod, "It's nothing to worry about."<p>

* * *

><p>Yumi then sighed in relief, but then heard James still humming the Jurassic Park theme and turned to glare at him.<p>

"What?" he said as he noticed Yumi glaring at him.

"Can you show some support?" Yumi said, a bit miffed at James's attitude, "Euphie's losing pretty badly and you're…"

"Enough!" Zukasu interrupted in a harsh tone, defusing a possible argument before it had the chance to start and then turned to face Yumi, "I know Euphie's losing, but don't get distressed over it. She hasn't lost yet and even if she does, it really doesn't matter as this is just a friendly duel and nothing more."

"I know, but Euphie hasn't even touched him," Yumi pointed out, "He still has all his life points and Euphie's lost over three quarters of hers."

"This Hassleberry does seem to be a formidable adversary," Terrance said, sounding intrigued at Hassleberry's skill, "Not only has he been able to get more than one monster out on the field during his first turn, but he also managed to find a way to get Euphie into a no-win situation."

"Huh?" Yumi said in surprise.

"What my brother means is his facedown card," Abigail said, continuing from where her brother left off, "He hasn't activated it yet, so I'm guessing that if even if he hadn't played Jurassic World, Euphie's Mirror Force trap would have failed anyway since he would have probably activated his facedown instead."

"Anyway, it's Euphie's turn," Zukasu said with a smile in Yumi's direction in an attempt to cheer her up, "Let's see if she can draw something that'll get her out of this mess."

Yumi just looked over at Euphemia with a look of worry.

"Gee, with the way she's acting, you'd think she believed that Euphie was gonna die if she lost," Terrance whispered over to his sister, to which Abigail nodded before turning to give the Japanese brunette a curious look.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia, Euphemia drew her next card, which turned out to be Pot of Greed, causing her to raise her eyebrows. It wasn't the card she was hoping for, but it could help.<p>

"Okay, I play the spell, Pot of Greed, which; as you know, lets me draw two cards from my deck," she announced as she placed the card in a spell/trap slot and the image on the card appeared on the field as Euphemia drew two cards, which were Mystical Elf and Gift of the Mystical Elf.

"Oh come on, you've got to be joking," she thought with a frown as this was not what she had wanted, but then noticing the Gift of the Mystical Elf, she calmed down a bit, "On the other hand, this could help me buy some time."

"Now I summon the Mystical Elf in defence mode and place one card facedown," she said as she placed the Mystical Elf card onto the middle monster space horizontally and place the Gift of the Mystical Elf into the middle spell/trap slot.

The Mystical Elf (800/2000) was a blue-skinned woman with long blonde her and she wore a long green dress that went up to just above her breasts with a white ornament circling her body, holding it in place and the ornament had shoulder guards that rose to just above her shoulder and she also wore a white crown on her head that was styled in the same way as the ornament. Behind her, the holographic representation of Euphemia's facedown card appeared.

"That'll do," she said simply with a sigh.

"Even if Jurassic World can negate traps; it only works when his dinosaurs are targeted," she thought as she stared Hassleberry down, "Since this trap also targets monsters on my side of the field, which aren't dinosaurs, I'll get something out of it anyway."

"Not much you can do; is there," Hassleberry said with a sigh, "I have to admit, you did have a great plan with Mirror Force as it would have left me defenceless had I not taken the proper course of action, but I expected more of a challenge."

"Sorry to disappoint you then," Euphemia said with a sigh, before her expression became serious, "But this duel's not over and I'm not giving up."

Hassleberry then smiled.

"That's the spirit, soldier," he said, feeling rather enthusiastic at Euphemia's declaration, "After all, as the Sarge always says the duel's not over…"

"Till the last card is played," Euphemia finished, glad that he was praising her for her fighting spirit.

"Anyway, it's my turn," he said as he drew his drew, which turned out to be Sabersaurus, which caused him to smirk as he nodded his head, "Now I play the spell card, Fossil Dig."

He then showed Euphemia a card with the image of four archaeologists examining an area of the ground with tools and a tent nearby. However, the archaeologists were all dressed from head to toe in bodysuits and wore yellow hardhats. One wore a blue bodysuit, another wore a green bodysuit, a third wore a red bodysuit and the last one wore an orange bodysuit.

"This card allows me to select one level-six or lower dinosaur-type monster to add from my deck to my hand," he said as he inserted it into a spell/trap slot and a holographic representation of the card appeared on the field facing Euphemia as Hassleberry took his deck out from its designated slot and took a card from it, adding it to his hand before putting his deck back in its slot.

"Now then, Sabersaurus, report for duty," he said as he slapped the Sabersaurus (1900/500) card onto the last monster space.

On the field a red triceratops like dinosaur appeared on the field with yellowish orange eyes with its two top horns shaped like scythe blades. It also had two scythe like blades sticking up from the top of its shoulders. It also had small bony spikes round its frail and the end of its tail was a dagger like blade with the borderline shaped like a the top of a dagger's hilt. The Sabersaurus (2200/800) just stared at Euphemia as her eyes widened as she realised that its strength was being enhanced by Jurassic World, making it strong enough to take out her Mystical Elf.

"I still have my trap though," she thought, thought she knew that against four of the five monsters, even that was no good.

"Whooow," Horned Kuriboh's call echoed in her mind, causing her eyes to widen in realisation.

"Oh, of course, Horned Kuriboh's effect," she thought to herself, feeling rather ecstatic, "I may still have a chance after all."

"Okay now, Sabersaurus, the first attack is yours," Hassleberry said as he pointed at Euphemia's Mystical Elf, "Relive the enemy of her defence with Tail Slash."

Sabersaurus then charged at the Mystical Elf.

"I reveal my trap card, Gift of the Mystical Elf," Euphemia said as she pushed a button on her duel disk and the facedown card behind the Mystical Elf rose up to reveal an image of the Mystical Elf with a smile on her face with a white energy orb in her hands and there were also white energy orbs against the background as well, "For each monster on the field, I gain three hundred life points."

A second Mystical Elf then levitated out of the trap card behind the first and then rose up as she moved behind Euphemia and summoned an energy orb between her hands, which then rained down on Euphemia.

"Your attack's still in play, but Mystical Elf is still on the field," she explained, "And with five monsters on your side, plus the one I have that's about to be destroyed; that's six monsters in total and if my math is correct, then that means I gain a total of eighteen hundred life points."

**Euphemia**: 2400 – **Hassleberry**: 4000

The Sabersaurus reached the Mystical Elf and then, like the black Stego, it veered to the side and then slashed at the Mystical Elf with its bladed tail, cutting her in half before the two halves shattered. However, since Mystical Elf was in defence mode, Euphemia did not receive any damage.

"It matters not as the rest of my arsenal's more than enough to take you down," Hassleberry said, with a look of disappointment, "That was just a wasted move."

"Oh really; normally you would be right, but I now activate the ability of my Horned Kuriboh," Euphemia announced as she placed her hand her graveyard slot as the Horned Kuriboh card suddenly came out and Euphemia took it and then took her deck out from her deck slot and added Horned Kuriboh to it before shuffling it, "Whenever Horned Kuriboh's in the graveyard, I can return him to my deck and in exchange, I don't take any damage for the rest of the turn."

She then inserted her deck back into the deck slot and gave Hassleberry a boastful smirk.

"Sam Hill," Hassleberry said as he was clearly at a loss for words since Euphemia was now safe from his monsters this turn even if he did order them to attack, "Okay, so I guess you earned yourself a reprieve for now; so I'll end my turn."

* * *

><p>"Whew, that was close," Yumi said from the side-lines as she sighed with relief, "She managed to save herself that turn."<p>

"Yeah, but can she make it count?" Zukasu said as he maintained a serious look on his face while staring at Euphemia, "She's not out of the woods yet. She has to draw a card that could potentially turn this duel around before she can rest easy."

"The J-Man's more concerned about this Hassleberry's facedown card," James said as he nodded his head towards Hassleberry's facedown card, which he had yet to activate, "He hasn't activated it yet."

"Must be an insurance policy," Terrance said simply, "You know, like a backup plan."

Yumi then looked back over at Euphemia in concern.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia, she then drew a card, which turned out to be Card of Sanctity and it gave her a look of hope, but also a thought of dread as she knew that it could potentially help Hassleberry as well as its effect applied to both players. Looking at Hassleberry's hand, she saw that he only had one card in his hand, whereas she had four, counting the one she had just drawn and she also noticed Hassleberry's facedown card, which he had yet to use.<p>

"This isn't looking too great," she thought to herself, "He has five monsters, one facedown card and a field spell that enhances his monsters' strength and I have nothing that could help me out. However, I could play Card of Sanctity, but unfortunately, that may help him as well. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to risk it."

"First, I play Card of Sanctity, which allows us both to draw until we're holding six cards," she said as she placed the Card of Sanctity card into a spell/trap slot and it appeared on the field in a vertical position with the front facing Hassleberry and then it started to glow as both Euphemia and Hassleberry drew from their decks; Euphemia drawing three cards and Hassleberry drawing five.

Euphemia smirked as she saw that she had drawn Mystical Space Typhoon, Dark Magician Girl and Monster Reborn.

"Well, it's been fun, but I think it's time that I reduce your forces' strength now," she said, causing Hassleberry to raise a curious eyebrow as he was curious as to what she was planning to do, "First, I activate the spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon, which allows me to destroy one spell or trap on the field and guess what my choice is."

Hassleberry's eyes widened in shock as Euphemia showed him a spell card with the image of what looked like a whirlpool descending into a black hole with black spots in with the blue and a lightning bolt that also descended into the blackness.

"Sam Hill!" Hassleberry gasped in shock as Euphemia inserted it into a spell/trap slot and then a wind suddenly started to pick up and the field slot of Hassleberry's disk automatically opened up and then a lightning bolt seemed to come out of nowhere, striking the Jurassic World card and then the surrounding scenery returned to normal.

The two Gilasauruses (1400/400x2), Black Stego (1200/2000) and Sabersaurus (1900/500) all roared in disapproval as their attack and defence points returned to normal, but the Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) still remained silent.

Euphemia then selected her Monster Reborn card and inserted it into another spell/trap slot after she had discarded the used Mystical Space Typhoon card to the graveyard.

"I then play Monster Reborn, which lets me bring a monster back from either of our graveyards, but I choose my Magician's Valkyria," Euphemia went on explained as the ornament in the Monster Reborn card's image appeared on the field and glowed red and then Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800) rose up out of the ground.

Euphemia nodded as she then examined her hand and took both her remaining trap card; Spellbinding Circle and Magical Cylinder and placed them both in the two spell/trap slot to the left of the middle.

"I then place these two cards facedown and next, I'll get my Valkyria to wage war with one of your Gilasauruses," Euphemia said as she pointed at the Gilasaurus on the right and Valkyria nodded just as two facedown cards appeared on the field.

Valkyria then unleashed an attack, firing an energy ball from her staff, which slammed into the Gilasaurus, destroying it.

**Euphemia**: 2400 – **Hassleberry**: 3800

"I'll then switch my Valkyria to defence mode and call it a turn," Euphemia said as she switched her Valkyria to defence mode, causing the female spellcaster to kneel.

* * *

><p>"Finally, she finally managed to score a hit," James said nodding to himself from the side-lines, "Though, the J-Man kinda enjoyed his trip to Jurassic Park."<p>

"I believe the card was called Jurassic World, not Jurassic Park," Abigail said, feeling a bit annoyed with James and his Jurassic Park references.

"Well she did manage to weaken his forces, that much is true," Zukasu noted as he analysed the situation, "However, Gilasaurus was the only monster she could safely attack. Sabersaurus is too strong for Valkyria and Black Stego's effect will only send him into defence mode in where he's stronger than Valkyria and that Miracle Jurassic Egg is in defence mode and has more defence points than Valkyria has attack points.

"Speaking of Miracle Jurassic Egg, is it me, or does it seem to be glowing?" Yumi said as she nodded her head towards Hassleberry's Miracle Jurassic Egg, which did indeed appear to be letting off a faint white glow.

"That must be its special ability," Terrance submersed looking at the field seriously.

"Miracle Jurassic Egg's effect makes it so that it gains two counters for each dinosaur-type monster sent to the graveyard," Abigail started to explain.

"Whenever it has counters placed on it, its owner can sacrifice it to summon a dinosaur-type monster whose level is equal to or lower than the number of counters it has," Terrance finished.

"You think that was his plan all along?" James asked curiously.

"Perhaps," Zukasu said simply.

"But then, why try to defeat Euphie as quickly as possible if he already has a plan in place to defeat her?" Yumi asked, feeling rather confused.

"Probably because he's leaving nothing to chance," Zukasu replied simply, "He's not just a dino-duellist, but a military man and every military man knows or should know that passing up an opportunity to finish the enemy off in favour of the original plan could be a costly mistake as there's no guarantee that the plan would work. Ultimately, it may end up helping the enemy in the long run. He knows this, which is why I'm guessing he's leaving nothing to chance."

"He's a definite improvement over that Rex Raptor character from ten years ago, that's for sure," Abigail said as she remembered Rex Raptor from ten years previously, "He normally relied on brute strength to win and didn't have many spell or trap cards to help him."

"Rex Raptor, the runner-up in the Domino City Regional Championship who lost to Weevil Underwood in the finals, but as soon as Duellist Kingdom came up immediately afterwards, his career started going down the toilet," Terrance explained as he looked at Hassleberry, "I'll say that you're right, Abi, he is a definite improvement over Rex Raptor. Dinosaur monsters mainly rely on brute strength to win. However, just charging your enemy won't work. You need planning and strategy because without strategy, then power is nothing more than an empty threat. Dinosaur cards usually have support cards that allow their owners to summon high level monsters to the field as quickly as possible; normally bypassing the "sacrificing weaker monsters" rule."

* * *

><p>Back with Hassleberry and Euphemia, Hassleberry chuckled as he recovered from seeing one of his monsters being destroyed.<p>

"I see you managed to mount an offence of your own, good move," he complimented with a smile before his look became serious, "But now it's my turn, so let's see what your Card of Sanctity has offered me."

Euphemia only groaned, knowing that her last turn may have helped Hassleberry as well. Anyway, Hassleberry looked at his hand and found that he currently held Dark Driceratops, which he added to his hand when he played Fossil Dig, Big Evolution Pill, Dark Tyranno, Fossil Excavation, Frostosaurus and Infinity Tyranno, which he drew thanks to Euphemia's Card of Sanctity card.

"Okay, it's my move and first, I'll dismiss my Gilasaurus to summon my Dark Driceratops, so, Gilasaurus, you're dismissed," he said as he removed the Gilasaurus card from its monster space, causing the hologram of the Gilasaurus to disappear starting from the head downwards and then he replaced it with the Dark Driceratops (2400/1500) card.

What appeared on the field looked like a cross between a triceratops and a parrot. It was mostly different shades of green with purple claws and its frail was made entirely out of feathers. It also had two short claw-like horns at the top of its head and a light green parrot-like beak.

"I then play this card facedown," Hassleberry went on as he inserted his Fossil Excavation card into a spell/trap slot and it appeared on the field, "Now Dark Driceratops, attack the enemy's Valkyria."

Dark Driceratops suddenly made a huge leap over to where Valkyria was and opened its beak before bringing the top point down on Valkyria's head, causing her to scream before she disappeared.

"And my Dark Driceratops is an armour piercing monster, meaning that you take damage equal to the difference between its attack points and your Valkyria's defence points," Hassleberry announced, causing Euphemia's eyes to widen and she then let out a dissatisfied groan.

**Euphemia**: 1800 – **Hassleberry**: 3800

"Now, Black Stego, your turn, go in for a direct assault," Hassleberry ordered as he pointed at Euphemia and Black Stego charged at her.

"Not so fast, I activate my Spellbinding Circle trap card," Euphemia said as she pushed a button on her duel disk, causing her Spellbinding Circle trap card to rise.

The image on the card displayed a circle with four triangles surrounded by circles, each pointing in a different direction and in the main circle was a bluish white magician's insignia that seemed to be glowing.

"Sorry, but I counter your move with Jurassic Heart," Hassleberry replied as he pushed a button on his duel disk and a trap card displaying the image of a real heart against a purple mist like background rose up, "This allows me to negate the effect of a trap card that targets one of my dinosaurs and destroy it."

Euphemia's eyes widened as she realised that the card he had just activated was the facedown card he had placed down during his first turn.

"He placed that down all the way back there," she thought as a shocking realisation soon dawned on her, "So even if he hadn't played Jurassic World, my Mirror Force would've still failed. He's good, but fortunately, I have my other trap to play."

Black Stego then ran into her, knocking her off her feet, well actually, the phantom sensation had caused her to jump backwards and land on her back.

**Euphemia**: 600 – **Hassleberry**: 3800

* * *

><p>"EUPHIE!" Yumi screamed in a panic as she started to run towards her from the side-lines, but Zukasu lunged towards her and then wrapped his arms round her waist.<p>

"Stop, this duel is still on," he told her, "If you go to help her, she'll be disqualified."

"But…" Yumi started to say.

"I know, I know," Zukasu interrupted with a serious "don't argue with me" look that prevented her from protesting, "However, we must wait till this duel is over. Those are the rules."

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Hassleberry, Euphemia quickly climbed to her feet as suddenly noticed the Miracle Jurassic Egg glowing and the glow had seemed to have gotten brighter from when Yumi noticed it.<p>

"Hey, I'm not done yet," Hassleberry said as he noticed that Euphemia's attention was not focussed on him.

"Oh, sorry," Euphemia said as she focused her attention back on him.

"Now, Sabersaurus, finish her off and end this war," he commanded as he pointed at Euphemia and the Sabersaurus charged towards her.

"If you had have used that Sabersaurus to begin with, you would have won, but unfortunately you used the wrong monster to attack me last time because I can now play my other trap," Euphemia announced as she pushed the activation button on her duel disk, causing her trap card to rise; displaying the image of two red decorated cylinders with a yellow outline at either end, black diamonds in yellow circles and a question mark.

However, the image also showed a yellow energy beam going into the left cylinder and exiting the right with the front shaped like an arrow. The two cylinders then came out of the card and Hassleberry's eyes widened in shock.

"Sam Hill!" he cursed in total shock as he knew the effect of Magical Cylinder.

"My Magical Cylinder deflects your attack right back at you," Euphemia said as Sabersaurus was sucked into the cylinder on its left and then came charging out of the one on the right, coming straight towards its master, "And get dealt damage equal to its attack points."

Hassleberry winced as the Sabersaurus veered to the side and slashed him with its tail.

**Euphemia**: 600 – **Hassleberry**: 1900

"Congratulations ma'am, you just earned yourself another reprieve," he complimented.

"Thanks," Euphemia said with a nod before her expression turned serious, "But now, it's my turn and now, I draw."

She then drew her card, which turned out to be a second Card of Sanctity and her eyes widened.

"This could help," she thought as she placed it into a spell/trap slot and the card then appeared on the field and glowed.

"First, I activate a second Card of Sanctity, which as you already know, lets us both draw till we're holding six cards," she said as she drew four cards, which turned out to be Graceful Charity, Spellcaster's Arena, Magician of Black Chaos and Mining for Magical Stones and she then reached for her Graceful Charity card, which displayed the image of a an angel with long brownish blonde hair and wearing a white dress with a blank card hovering above her hands., " I then activate Graceful Charity, which allows me to draw three cards, but I must discard two of them."

She placed the Graceful Charity card into a spell/trap slot and the angel in the card appeared on the field and then raised her hands and formed a glowing yellowish white orb and Euphemia then drew her cards, which turned out to be Cost Down, Illusion Magician and Dark Magician. She nodded as she selected Cost Down to keep and discarded the two Magicians to the graveyard as their presence in the graveyard would be rather helpful to her for now.

"Next, I play the spell card, Cost Down," she went on as she inserted the Cost Down card into a spell/trap slot, causing it to appear on the field, "By discarding a card from my hand, I can demote the level of a monster in my hand by two, causing my Dark Magician Girl to become a level-four monster; meaning I can summon her without having to sacrifice a monster.

She then discarded her Copycat cat, which had been in her hand since her first turn and then placed the Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700) card onto the middle monster space and a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes appeared on the field wearing a blue outfit with a pink outline and also had a hat styled like the Dark Magician's the same colour and was armed with a blue staff with a yellow spiral top. Dark Magician Girl (2600/1700) looked ready to attack, though she gave Hassleberry a wink.

"Uh, hey, what's going on, why did her attack points increase?" Hassleberry demanded in shock.

"Well, Sarge, the two cards I discarded when I played Graceful Charity were Dark Magician and Illusion Magician and everyone knows that whenever Dark Magician's in the graveyard and Dark Magician Girl's on the field, Dark Magician Girl gains three hundred extra attack points."

"But you said one of them was Dark Magician…" Hassleberry started to say.

"That's because whenever Illusion Magician is on the field or in the graveyard, he's treated as Dark Magician," Euphemia explained as she cleared up Hassleberry's confusion, "Also he can be sacrificed from the field to summon Dark Magician from the owner's hand, but both of them in the graveyard will suffice for now as it gives my Dark Magician Girl the strength to deal with your Dark Driceratops."

She then turned her attention to Dark Magician Girl.

"Now, Dark Magician Girl use your Dark Burning attack to take out that Dark Driceratops," she commended and Dark Magician Girl nodded as she did a twirl as a pink energy ball started to form at the top of her staff and once she had did a complete three-sixty-degree turn, she hurled the energy ball towards the Dark Driceratops, destroying it once it had made contact.

Hassleberry raised his arms in front of his face as the wind from the attack assaulted him and he felt the phantom sensation as if the wind was real.

**Euphemia**: 600 – **Hassleberry**: 1700

"And that'll do it for now," Euphemia said and then a smile formed on her face, "Though I have to admit, so far, this is the toughest duel I've been in so far."

"Thanks for that, you're not all that bad yourself ma'am," Hassleberry replied with a smile of his own, "Just when I think I'm ready to end this war, you just so happen to find some way to pull through. I like that. It reminds me of the Sarge."

* * *

><p>"Wow, what a comeback," Blair, who had been silent this whole time spoke up, "She was overwhelmed at first, but she then managed to somehow hang on and turn the duel around. I have to say, I'm impressed."<p>

"Me to," Zukasu said with a nod, "Though it's now Hassleberry's turn, so let's see what he's going to counter with."

"This is awesome," James spoke up, "Euphie just keeps coming back for more."

"Maybe she'll win," Yumi said hopefully as she gave her pink-haired friend a hopeful look.

"Well, I can honestly say that Hassleberry's the better duellist here," Terrance said and Abigail nodded, "Through the duration of this duel, he's only made one mistake and that was using his Black Stego when he should have used his Sabersaurus to attack when Euphie had her two traps lying in wait. He was able to use his Jurassic Heart to counter the first one, but if he had have used Sabersaurus instead of Black Stego, he would have won seeing as Euphie only had eighteen hundred life points and Sabersaurus has an attack strength of nineteen hundred."

"Probably got caught up in the moment," Abigail reasoned with a shrug and Terrance nodded in agreement.

"Well that egg's still on the field," Yumi said as she noticed Miracle Jurassic Egg, which was glowing even brighter, "What could he possibly be waiting for?"

"Probably his last monster to be destroyed," Zukasu replied as he stared at it, "Four monsters have been sent to the graveyard so far, and it get two per monster, so I'm guessing that he wants to summon a level-eight monster and if that's the case, then he needs one more monster in the graveyard."

* * *

><p>Hassleberry drew his next card, which was Amber Pitfall and then looked at his hand and discovered that he had seven cards due to Euphemia playing her second Card of Sanctity and the two cards he had drawn from that were Destroyersaurus and Jurassic Impact.<p>

"Okay, first, I'll dismiss Black Stego and Sabersaurus from the field to summon my Dark Tyranno," he said as he removed the two cards from their spaces and discarded them to the graveyard and the two holographic versions of the monsters disappeared in the same manner as the Gilasaurus had earlier and a dark brown tyrannosaurus appeared on the field with yellowish white stripes along its back and the sides of its thighs.

"A T-Rex, how original," Euphemia said with a yawn and Dark Tyranno (2600/1800) roared at her, taking offence to her statement.

"I'm not done yet, now it you'll pay attention to my Miracle Jurassic Egg," Hassleberry said as he directed Euphemia's attention over to the egg, which was now glowing brighter than ever, "There are a total of five dinosaurs in my graveyard and this here egg gets two counters for each one, so that's a total of ten counters, so now I can sacrifice my egg to summon a monster whose level is equal to or lower than the number of counters it has and I chose my Super Conductor Tyranno."

He then took his deck out of its slot and choose the card he was looking for and then took off the Miracle Jurassic Egg card and replaced it with the Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) card. On the field, the egg continued to glow and then a giant green long-armed, three-fingered tyrannosaurus wearing grey armour over its chest, thighs, arms and tail with purple orbs running along the tail and the end arced off in two separate directions at diagonal angles burst out from the egg, sending parts of egg shell flying in all directions, but since they were just holograms, they vanished upon leaving the range of the holographic projectors. It also appeared to have two rows of spikes running down at the back of its head.

"And I then activate my trap, Fossil Excavation," he went on as he pushed the activation button on his duel disk and his facedown card rose up revealing an image of the four archaeologists from the Fossil Dig spell card uncovering a dinosaur's skull, though the one in the orange jumpsuit appeared to be sitting away from the other having his break.

"I discard one card from my hand," Hassleberry went on as he discarded his Frostosaurus to the graveyard, "And then I can choose a dinosaur from the graveyard to summon back to the field and I choose my Gilasaurus."

Suddenly, a dinosaur skeleton that looked remarkably like Gilasaurus appeared to rise out of the ground and then come together before transforming into Gilasaurus.

"But he's not going to be around for long, for I use him as cannon fodder to activate the special ability of my Super Conductor Tyranno," he continued to explained as he then removed the Gilasaurus card and placed it back into the graveyard and the Gilasaurus on the field vanished, though stars that represented its essence shot towards Super Conductor Tyranno, who roared as he stared to form a green energy ball in front of its mouth and then hurled it straight at Euphemia.

"By sacrificing a monster, I can deal one thousand points of damage to you," Hassleberry said, concluding his speech, though if you had survived, you'd be lucky to know that he can't attack if this effect is used on the same turn, but that doesn't matter. No matter what I did in this turn, your defeat was assured."

Euphemia brought her arms up in front of her face as the energy ball hit and exploded sending her flying off her feet and to the ground, landing on her back.

**Euphemia**: 0 – **Hassleberry (winner)**: 1700

"EUPHIE!" Yumi's cry came as her friends all came running to check up on her with Euphie looking as if she was having a panic-attack.

Euphemia looked towards her friends as she started to pick herself up and she then drew the card on the top of her deck to see what she would have drawn if she had managed to survive that last turn and found it to be Thousand Knives and looking at the cards in her card, she discovered that if she had have survived Hassleberry's last turn, she just may have been able to win if Hassleberry hadn't summoned Super Conductor Tyranno or used his Fossil Excavation trap card to summon a monster from the graveyard.

"Euphie, are you alright?" Yumi's voice came, bringing her out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"I'm fine," Euphemia replied as she dusted herself off and flashed her a smile, "I'll admit, I'm a bit shocked that I lost, but hey; it just goes to prove that I'm not unbeatable."

"Glad to hear it, ma'am," Hassleberry said as he walked over to Euphemia with his arms folded and a smile on his face, "No hard fellin's, I hope."

Euphemia just shook her head.

"Nah, it's all good, I was bound to lose a duel sooner or later; I just didn't expect that it would be so early on," she said and gave Yumi and her friends a reassuring smile, letting them know that she was indeed okay.

"Thank goodness," Yumi sighed in relief, as she had been worried that Euphemia would not handle the loss that well, "I was worried there."

"I'm no stranger to losing," Euphemia told her as she decided to reveal her "training" for lack of a better term, "Before I came to Duel Academy, I spent some time with Jaden and Yūgi Mutō, the King of Games and they both pitted me against numerous individuals; some which I lost to."

She then paused and then turned to Hassleberry with a questioning look on her face.

"Which brings me to my next point," she went on, causing the din-duellist to gulp, "I have to know something, did Jaden put you up to this?"

"W-w-what m-make's you s-s-say that?" Hassleberry stuttered, which gave Euphemia her answer.

"I thought as much," she said with a smile.

"But why would Jaden do that; why would he ask him to duel you?" Terrance asked curiously.

"He wanted to remind you of what you learned before coming here," Hassleberry spoke up after gaining the courage to come clean, "The Sarge came to me yesterday and told me to duel you. He hoped that I would win and remind you of what you learned."

Euphemia nodded with an understanding smile.

"I see, so he believed that if I continued to win all my duels, I'd forget what it's like to lose and become like those stuck-up snobs in Obelisk Blue; no offence, Zukasu," she said in understanding.

"None taken," Zukasu said with an understanding nod.

"Yep," Hassleberry confirmed with a nod.

"Thank you, I'd rather not become conceited and think I can win all the time," Euphemia said simply, "I enjoy what I have and don't like the idea of losing it; namely you guys."

Yumi, James, Terrance, Abigail and Zukasu all looked a bit taken aback at this, but very quickly calmed down and felt rather touched at Euphemia acknowledging them.

"You're pretty good, ma'am, I have to say, I'm impressed," Hassleberry said as he smiled at Euphemia respectfully, "Whenever you feel you're ready, come find me and we can have a rematch."

"Thanks," Euphemia said, giving the military-speaking dino-duellist a look of respect.

"Just what is going on here?" a new voice came sounding rather concerned, causing everyone to turn and see Sophia Arenson standing behind them and giving the five non-Slifers a suspicious glare, "You haven't been pestering the students here, have you?"

"Oh no, they weren't bothering us, Arenson-san," Yumi quickly spoke up, coming to her friends' defence, "They're our friends. We met during the Entrance Exams."

"Yeah, that's right, they weren't doing any harm," Euphemia added, putting in her two cents, "Hassleberry and I just had a friendly duel, that's all."

"That's correct," Blair added simply, "I know Hassleberry from last year. He's not one of those who think he's better than us because he's a higher-rank."

Sophia remained silent for a moment as she analysed the three Slifers; looking for any signs that they were fearful of the fours Ras and Obelisk as it was common knowledge that victims of bullying sometimes covered for their tormentors, afraid of what they would do to them if they ranted them out, but to her surprise, she found none and Euphemia even looked ready to take it further if she persisted.

"Okay then, carry on then," she said with a satisfactory nod.

However, she did not leave; deciding to stay and see what happened.

"Could be worse, Euphie," James said with a laugh, "You could've lost to that Stella chick."

"Yeah," Euphemia said with a laugh, though Yumi shivered at the thought; clearly not finding it funny.

However, upon hearing Stella's name, Sophia's eyes widened in shock.

"Stella…" she said aloud, causing everyone to turn to face her, "You don't mean Stella Harrington, do you?"

"Uh huh, the very same," Yumi replied, looking confused at her headmistress's reaction, though she did not ask about it.

"Last night Stella challenged Euphie here to a duel and Euphie won," Blair explained as she recalled how Euphemia left their room to go and answer Stella's challenge.

"Last night, but off-hour duels are prohibited," Sophia said, giving Euphemia a scolding look.

"We didn't know that, but apparently Stella did and she even paid Campus Security so that they would not interrupt the duel," Terrance explained, feeling the need to stand up for Euphemia since Dr Crowler had known and had decided to let it slide.

"I see," Sophia sighed as she shook her head, "I suppose given the circumstances, I'll let it slide just this once; especially considering whom it was that arranged it. I know that girl and what she's capable of and, Euphemia…"

She then paused and gave Euphemia a worrying look that looked as if Sophia was really fearful for Euphemia's safety.

"If I were you, I'd stay away from Stella in future," she went on as her look hardened into a serious "don't mess with me" look, "I'm telling you this for your own good. That girl is highly dangerous and messing with her will only land you in a heap of trouble… heck, given what she's capable of, that may just very well be an understatement."

"You're a bit too late for that," Zukasu spoke up, "I attended the same prep school as her and I know what she's capable of and she's already threatened retaliation."

Sophia sighed as she placed a hand over her forehead and from the looks of it, she looked ready to fall over from dizziness.

"Be careful," she warned as she recovered and then turned to walk away.

"Gee, I wonder what her relationship with Stella is," Abigail spoke up as she watched the Slifer Headmistress leave.

"Yeah, from the way she looked, it's as if she knew Stella rather intimately," Terrance said in agreement.

"Well, I doubt that it's any of our business, so let's just leave it at that," Euphemia said as she turned to go back into her room.

"But, Euphie, Stella's gonna come after you," Yumi said as she followed her friend into the room with Blair taking the rear.

"That was a great duel," she said to Hassleberry, who just nodded with a smile on his face, "I look forward to seeing how much better she does when you both meet again."

"Me to," Hassleberry said with a smirk.

"Well, that was entertaining," James said as he started to make his way back to the Ra Dorms, "The J-Man rather enjoyed that."

Abigail opened her mouth to say something, but then she heard a voice belonging to the last person she ever wanted to hear for as long as she lived.

"Hey, Red," it came, interrupting her before she could get a word out, causing her to cringe as the figure of her roommate, Alicia Riverton came running towards her, "So this is where you were, I was a bit worried that you might be lost or something."

"Lost?" Abigail said in shock, unable to believe how this sugar-high bimbo came to that conclusion.

"Must be your sister's roommate," Zukasu said to Terrance, who only nodded with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, I see you have friends," Alicia said, noticing the others, "Who are they?"

"Well, I'm Abi's older twin brother, Terrance," Terrance said as he introduced himself.

"And I'm James Jonah Jamison, otherwise known as the J-Man," James said as he introduced himself.

"And I'm Zukasu Rikuguru," Zukasu said with a laugh.

"Tyranno Hassleberry, pleased to meet your acquaintance, ma'am," Hassleberry introduced with a bow.

"Oh goodie," Alicia said as she jumped up and down; bursting with excitement, "My name's Alicia Riverton and Red here is my new best friend."

Abigail's eyes widened in complete disbelief at hearing Alicia's declaration.

"W-w-what?" she spluttered in shock, "You're kiddin', right?"

"Nope," Alicia said, shaking her head as she then turned to the others in the group, "So you're Red's brother, huh?"

"Uh huh," Terrance replied with a nod.

"Then I'll call you, Red-Boy," Alicia said with a rather childish smile on her face before turning to the others, "And you'll all be, J-Man, Zuzu and Dino-man."

The others just all stared at her in shock; totally stunned at her declaration and Abigail just let out a groan of dissatisfaction.

* * *

><p>From where he was, Jaden watched the whole thing unfold and let out a humorous chuckle as he watched Alicia's antics. He was rather pleased with how things had turned out. Hassleberry defeated Euphemia and Euphemia took it rather well. In truth, he had been a bit worried that she would not take that well and would become rather bitter afterwards, but thankfully, that wasn't the case. He remembered when he started Duel Academy how he had won six duels before suffering his first loss at Zane's hands... well, technically his first duel with Chazz ended in a no-result as the duel was interrupted by Campus Security, but since Jaden knew that he would have won if the duel had not been interrupted, he counted it as a win.<p>

"Two victories before her first loss, I know that it's not what you were hoping for Euphie, but I really wanted to get it into your head that you're not unbeatable," he said to himself as he continued to watch the four Ras and Obelisks outside the Slifer Dorm and they were starting to disperse.

However, his eyes focused on the lone Obelisk as he started to make his way back to the Obelisk Dorm. From what Axel had said, Zukasu's deck did not check out. The majority of his cards did not appear on any official Duel Monsters card lists and yet when he duelled, his duel disk had apparently recognised them as legitimate cards. It was common knowledge among the duelling community that duel disks were programmed in such a way that they would not recognise illegal or counterfeit cards. In other words, if someone played an illegal or counterfeit card, then the holographic projectors would not project a hologram of the said card and though duel disks could be reprogrammed to accept illegal and counterfeit cards, each duel disk had an alarm system linked to the Kaiba Corp mainframe; so if anyone tampered with a duel disk, the staff at Kaiba Corp would know about it and then they would therefore have the reprogrammed disk shut down, so its owner would be unable to use it in a duel.

However, in Zukasu's case, the alarm system in his duel disk had failed to go off and to Jaden's surprise, he had learned that his old duel disk had been sent to Kaiba Corp for an inspection and it turned out that it was working perfectly. There was nothing wrong with the duel disk and it had left many the technicians stumped; but even more strange was that while he was in prep school, none of the staff there had ever reported him using those counterfeit cards and from what Zukasu's records said, that was the deck he had been using for the duration of his time there and when questioned about why they did not report it, none of the staff could provide a decent answer. All Axel had gotten from them was "I don't know" and from what he had told Jaden, it was clear that when they thought back on it, they were asking themselves the same question.

"It's not much, but it's something," Jaden thought as he jumped down from the branch to the ground and started walking towards the main academy building, "I'll just have to get Chancellor Sheppard to let me review the footage of his duel during the Entrance Exams. Something definitely stinks here."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Stella was in her room currently writing a note while laughing maniacally to herself.<p>

"Oh yes, this plan is great," she said to herself as she wrote, "Come tomorrow night, it'll be the end of that Pink-haired Floozy and I'll be right back on top where I should be."

"Only human," Euphemia's voice echoed in her mind for the umpteenth time since her defeat.

"I'll show you," Stella growled, believing that Euphemia was taunting her; rubbing it in her face and looking down on her like she was an insignificant insect.

It was that what she hated the most. After she had fallen asleep the previous night, she had had a nightmare in which Euphemia had defeated her and then proceeded to laugh at her and insult her; basically in her dream she was on the receiving end of her own cruelty, only Euphemia was the one dishing it out and Stella hated it. She hated being on the receiving end. The last time she had been on the receiving end of such cruelty was when she was just a child, but unfortunately, it seemed that time did not heal all wounds. She still remembered the feeling of powerlessness and hearing her tormentors' cruel insults as if those incidents had occurred the previous day and they still hurt just as much as they did then; only now since her defeat, those incidents in her childhood seemed to haunt her even more than ever.

"No, I won't let this stand," she thought as she finished writing and then folded the paper up before putting it into an envelope, "The world is cruel, so you must be just as cruel, if not even more so if you want to survive."

She then licked the sticky part of the envelope flap and pushed it down on the envelope, sealing it and then she reached for a tube of lipstick and rolled the red part over her lips, till they were nice and red and then took the envelope and gave the back end a great big smooch, transferring some of the wet lipstick onto it in the shape of lips and then took the pen she had been writing with and wrote on the front.

"To my dearly beloved Euphemia," she said, reading what she had just written, "Oh this is just too brilliant and not only that, but using that Mecha-freak's name as bait will assure that she'll fall right into my trap and then once I defeat her, it's goodbye, Floozy."

She then let out a rather evil laugh as she stood up and threw her head back. Of course, if she had been thinking clearly, she would have realised that using lipstick on the envelope while claiming that the note inside was from a boy would have probably given her away, but unfortunately she was so absorbed in her own excitement that this realisation was lost to her as all she thought about was Euphemia's downfall and nothing else mattered to her.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Jaden is watching footage of Zukasu's duel during the Entrance exams in which he defeated the proctor in a single turn.

"_Well that was enlightening, though I still can't believe I lost," Euphemia said with a laugh, "But still, it's nice to know that there's someone better than me."_

"_Why?" Yumi asks curiously._

"_Because it gives me a reason to improve my skills," Euphemia replies._

Stella places her fake love note in Yumi's gym locker mistaking it for Euphemia's.

Yumi runs in, late for class and notices it.

_A love letter, for… oh it's for you, Euphie," Yumi says, excited at first, but disappointed when she realises the truth, "From Zukasu Rikuguru."_

Yumi opens the envelope and read the note and is so shocked at what she reads that she fails to notice the lipstick mark at the back of the envelope and the fact that Zukasu's name is spelled wrong.

"_Oh my word, this is…" Yumi says, unable to string the rest of her words together, "Why that disgusting pervert."_

"_What's with you all of a sudden?" Euphemia asks_

Stella, Eileen and Hailey lie in wait behind the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm for Euphie, but Stella is shocked when Yumi arrives instead.

Yumi is shocked when she realises that it was all just a setup, but Stella decides to salvage the situation by using Yumi as bait to lure Euphemia instead.

"_Somebody help me!" Yumi screams in a panic_

"_Oh this'll be good," Stella says with sadistic excitement._

Yumi manages to free herself by biting Stella, but Stella produces a knife and she, Eileen and Hailey give chase.

Euphemia arrives just as Zukasu jumps out from the trees, using Suzaku's trademark spin-kick to disarm Stella and knock her to the ground.

_Just what on Earth is going on here?" Zukasu demands._

"_Stay outta this, Mecha-freak," Stella says, fuming at her plan going down the toilet._

Euphemia, Yumi, Zukasu and even Eileen and Hailey burst into laughter after Zukasu reads Stella's phony note and points out that his name's spelled wrong and notices the lipstick mark on the envelope.

Stella is furious and in her anger, challenges Zukasu to a duel.

"_Wow, this is the first duel I'm not a part of," Euphemia says._

"_That's right," Yumi said, "You're on the side-lines this time."_

"GAME ON!" both Zukasu and Stella yell at the same time

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

"_I'll deal with you first, Mecha-freak," Stella says excitedly, "You pay attention to this, you Pink-haired Floozy, for this will be a preview of what I'm gonna do to you."_

Zukasu summons a monster that looks like a human-sized version of a Glasgow Knightmare Frame and Euphemia's eyes widen in shock as she feels a sense of familiarity with the "monster".

_I guess that's why Stella calls him a mecha-freak," Euphemia says while in shock, "But those Knightmare Frame monsters of his look familiar to me."_

"_Oh here we go again," Yumi says, remembering all the times Euphemia zoned out and when she called Zukasu, Suzaku._

Zukasu wins and Stella storms away, absolutely livid with the outcome.

"_Next time: The Mysterious Knightmare Frame Deck," Euphemia says feeling a bit strange, "Why do those monsters look so familiar to me?"_

"_Perhaps I can shed some light on the subject," Jaden says simply, "At a later date, when you're ready."_

Jaden is standing behind a tree not far from where the duel took place having seen the duel for himself and has a serious look on his face.

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><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Super Conductor Tyranno

**Attribute** – Light

**Type** – Dinosaur/Effect

**Level** – 8

**ATK/DEF** – 3300/1400

**Info** – Once per turn, by Tributing 1 monster, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent. This monster cannot declare an attack if you use this effect this turn.

"_That was a strange ending for a duel," Jaden says questioningly, "You know that Hassleberry could have used his Fossil Excavation to revive a monster from his graveyard, have Dark Tyranno attack Dark Magician Girl and then have the revived monster attack Euphie directly without using Miracle Jurassic Egg to summon Super Conductor Tyranno."_

"_Yes, but Hassleberry just didn't want his Miracle Jurassic Egg to go to waste," the author says._

"_But why defeat Euphemia with its effect, why not just have it attack?" Jaden asks._

"_No matter what would've happened, Euphemia would have lost on that turn anyway," the author simply says, "Hassleberry just wanted to show off."_

"_I think I get it," Jaden says, though he sounds unsure._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Whew, this chapter was a real challenge to write. I spend three days writing up the duel and had to change a few things as it did not go the way I wanted it, but fortunately things worked out for the most part. I managed to get my OC profiles up on my profile (though they don't come with biographies as I don't know where they'll all end up). Anyway, the current arc I'm working on will be like the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Freshman arc of the first season where hardly any duels will be Shadow Games, though there will be bad guys at work behind the scenes. Once the Show Games become more common, it'll be the halfway mark. Anyway, from the 29th August to 12th September, I'll be away for a two-week holiday, so don't expect any updates between those dates. I will try however to at least get the next chapter out before then.


	5. The Mysterious Knightmare Frame Deck

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**The Mysterious Knightmare Frame Deck**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

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><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – Emperor Charles zi Britannia has become increasingly paranoid since the disappearance of Euphemia's body; worried that someone's plotting on thwarting his plan to bring about the Ragnarok Connection. As he muses on the past; especially the events that led to Lelouch donning the mask of Zero and how he had orchestrated the events that led to Britannia invading other countries in its recent expansion to give Britannia the excuses to invade, he grudgingly accepts Schneizel's explanation that an investigation into Euphemia's body's disappearance would prove pointless as there are no clues to go on. Meanwhile, Jaden starts his investigation into Zukasu and makes a rather shocking discovery in that Zukasu is not the only "clone" of someone from the Code Geass World in his world. As he wrestles with that revelation, Stella puts her plan to duel and then have Euphemia expelled into action, only for her "love letter" to fall into the hands of Yumi. However, deciding to salvage the situation, Stella decides to use Yumi as bait to lure Euphemia, but Yumi ends up being saved by none other than Zukasu, who proceeds to duel Stella. However, the monsters in Zukasu's deck strike a familiar chord with Euphemia once she arrives and coupled with her familiarity with Zukasu, she becomes even more confused. Will Zukasu be able to defeat Stella and repel the cruel teal-haired girl? Regardless of the outcome, Yumi realises that there's something going on behind the scenes involving Euphemia; something that she knows perfectly well that even Euphemia's not aware of.

* * *

><p><strong>Code Geass World – Pendragon, Britannian Homeland, Imperial Palace, Throne Room<strong>

Charles zi Britannia was not in a good mood to say the least. He had not been in a good mood for the past two months since he had learned that the body of his third daughter, Euphemia li Britannia had vanished from the Avalon under mysterious circumstances. In fact, if one could gage his current mood right now, they would come to realise that the Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire was suffering from paranoia. Since learning Euphemia's mysterious disappearance, he had become increasingly paranoid for some strange reason, though he managed to put it to the back of his mind during his public appearances and maintain his usual strong and tough composure. No one other than the Knight of One and his Royal Guard knew of his paranoia, so there was no fear of a public scandal as… with the rhetoric he enforced suggested that paranoia was a sign of weakness and many of his enemies; both at home and abroad may seek to capitalise on this. Charles was no fool. He knew he had enemies. The EU, which Britannia was currently at war with, saw him as an enemy and he was aware of the pro-equality elements within Britannia itself. Far from what many people believed, Britannia was not as united as it portrayed itself as. There were many internal feuds and disagreements within Britannia just as much as there were in both the EU and the Chinese Federation. However, if Britannia's internal problems became known to either the EU or the Chinese Federation, they would see it as a sign of weakness and may work to incite civil war in Britannia in order to weaken it and that was something that Charles was determined would not happen under any circumstances.

However, he could not help but think back to the start of his campaign of expansion. To the masses, it had all been about Social Darwinism and justifying the right to survive. Oppression and subjugation of others is what justified a person's right to survive. It was survival of the fittest; the strong would survive and the weak would perish. The weak existed for no other purpose other than to be crushed and to appease the strong. By invading other countries and "enlightening" their native populations to the Britannian way of thinking, the Britannians were justifying their right to survive. Unfortunately, that was nothing more than a carefully constructed ruse. It was true that the Holy Britannian Empire had adopted the logic of Social Darwinism ever since its foundation when its founders had fled from the original homeland, which had been become a part of the EU thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte, but to Charles, Social Darwinism had become nothing more than a smokescreen to mask his true intentions. After all, it was Social Darwinism that had cost him the life of his mother, Petunia zi Britannia.

"Not my fondest memories," he said to himself with a frown as he remembered how his mother had been assassinated and all because she had married his father.

Charles and his slightly older twin brother, Vincent; now V.V. had grown up during a period in Britannia's history known as the Emblem of Blood; a time of internal fighting within the Royal Family where those who had claims to the throne lied, deceived and murdered one another in order to ascend the throne. It was a time of deception and lies and Charles and Vincent had been rather traumatised by it, but then Vincent had received the power of Geass, which was also known as the Power of the Kings from an immortal, the previous V.V. when he was only ten and then eventually, V.V. had given Vincent his Code after his Geass evolved to the point where it was visible in both his eyes and Vincent became the new V.V.. From then on, Charles had entered a contract with his brother to rid the world of its deceptions and lies; to bring about the Ragnarök Connection, which they had researched previously after hearing about it from the original V.V., which entailed the construction of a giant object known as the Sword of Akasha that was capable of slaying the gods themselves and then once that had occurred, the consciences of the living and dead would all merge into one consciousness. As Charles believed, masks would vanish and the people would be able to see others for what they really were as they would be unable to hide their true faces. People could be themselves and not have to worry about putting on façades to impress others or find acceptance. It was his idea of the perfect world. He and his brother even made a pact never to lie to one another.

"But you had broken that promise we made, Big Brother," Charles thought with an angry sneer as he remembered how his brother had murdered his favourite wife and left the daughter he had had with her a paraplegic.

During his campaign to overthrow his predecessor, he had met a commoner soldier by the name of Marianne Lamperouge and had fallen in love with her. The rest of his wives were nothing more to him than breeding stock, but Marianne was his one true love. She was just a commoner and yet, she had skills that made many of the nobles seem like amateurs. Her skills in piloting a Knightmare Frame were among the best and she had been the Knight of Six, though with her skills, she could have easily become the Knight of One, but her commoner status had many of the nobles infuriated. Her skills had been one of the reasons the nobility had despised her. She was just a commoner and in the eyes of the nobility, inferior to them and yet she had proven them wrong. Many nobles just could not accept that and Marianne knew it and one of her hobbies had been to rub it in their faces at every given opportunity just to get rises out of them and it got so bad that many of the nobility hated her so much that they considered her very existence a crime against humanity itself.

Anyway, Marianne had also come into contact with another Code Bearer, C.C. and Charles eventually told Marianne of his plans with his brother and to his surprise, both she and C.C. had agreed to help, though to C.C., Charles knew that she really did not care about whether the plan would succeed or not and was just helping them to alleviate her boredom. However, Charles spent more and more time with Marianne, much to V.V.'s displeasure and V.V. started to view Marianne as a threat, believing that she may cause Charles to have second thoughts and give up despite the fact that she had agreed to help them and eventually, V.V. did away with her, though unbeknownst to him, Marianne had used her Geass to transfer her soul into the body of a little girl who had been unfortunate enough to witness the assassination, Anya Alstreim, the current Knight of Six who had been at the Aries Villa as an apprentice on social etiquette. However, it had been the first time Marianne had used her Geass and she did not know its drawbacks and limitations, so fearing that she could only stay in Anya's body for so long before she automatically returned to her body, she had convinced him to have her body disposed of; something that he had Schneizel see to.

Anyway, in order to facilitate the Ragnarök Connection, he needed the help of several ruins scattered throughout the world and that was what his expansion was about. He wanted to obtain those ruins in order to proceed with the Ragnarök Connection. All the events beforehand; such as negotiations breaking down and the other countries not bowing to Britannia's demands were all just carefully constructed manipulations on Charles's part. One such example was after Britannia had conquered the Indochinese Peninsula and renamed it, Area Ten. Everyone knew that Sakuradite was valuable due to its superconductive properties and more and more military technology was becoming reliant on it. However, over seventy percent of the world's Sakuradite was located in Japan and Japan had manipulated the Sakuradite supplies to each of the three major superpowers, thereby maintaining its independence and economic superiority. In other words, Japan was able to maintain the balance of power between the three superpowers as if one invaded to gain unconditional access to the Sakuradite to give them an advantage, then they would have to contend with the other two since they would attack to prevent their possible elimination from the world's stage and knowing the possible consequences of such a conflict; none of the three superpowers had dared to invade Japan. However, Charles had discovered the ruins on Kamine Island and knowing that he would need those ruins to help facilitate the Ragnarök Connection, he had got in contact with the Japanese Prime Minister, Genbu Kururugi and managed to convince him to help him. He had told Genbu about the Ragnarök Connection and bribed him with a promise of him becoming nobility. After Indochina became Area Ten, the EU and Chinese Federation had become rather nervous about Britannia's expansion and had blockaded Britannian ports to force negotiations on Sakuradite as they both feared that Britannia was planning on taking Japan. Under Charles's instructions, Genbu had aligned Japan's policies with both the EU and Chinese Federation and joined in the blockading of Britannian ports, giving Charles the excuse he needed to send the invasion force into Japan and he also had come up with a plan to keep the EU and Chinese Federation at bay by bribing them with promises of equal shares of Sakuradite and they both bought it; hook, line and sinker. Seeing as the Japanese were stubborn and refused to surrender, even when it was obvious that they would lose, Genbu had called for every Japanese man, woman and child to resist Britannia till their last breath, pretty much throwing his own people to the wolves in order to make it easier for Charles to obtain the ruins on Kamine Island, but unfortunately, Genbu met his end at the hands of his son, who had basically had gotten caught up in the moment where he had seen red and acted without thinking.

"Oh well, it matters not," Charles mused to himself, "I still managed to gain what I was after."

That much was true, Genbu had been motivated by promises of being made nobility and it had cost him. The Japanese eventually surrendered, though they had not truly been broken and their resources had not fully been crushed, but that did not matter to Charles in the slightest. They were blissfully unaware of his true intentions and that was all that mattered. All the fighting in "Area Eleven" diverted the people's attention away from Kamine Island. However, Schneizel and Clovis's old army general, Bartley Aspirus had come across the ruins and Bartley had done research into the ruins and uncovered the truth behind Britannia's recent expansion, but that did not matter to Charles. Neither Schneizel nor Bartley had any clue to the true magnitude of what he had planned and by the time they did, Charles figured that it would already be too late for them to stop him. The Sword of Akasha was nearing completion. The Ragnarök Connection would soon begin and there was not anything that anyone could do to stop him. However, it was all reliant on his disgraced son, Lelouch.

Ah yes, Lelouch, Marianne's son; the one who dared challenge him to his face over his neglect over Marianne's assassination. He remembered how after V.V. had killed Marianne that he had arranged for a cover-up, using Nunnally as a witness. He also remembered how he had feared for the safety of Lelouch and Nunnally after Marianne's assassination and how he had used his Geass on Nunnally, making her blind and everyone came to believe that her blindness was due to psychological trauma. He also used his Geass on Anya since she had been a true witness, as well as the host for Marianne's soul and he feared that V.V. may very well discover this fact as well as target both Lelouch and Nunnally since they were both Marianne's children and V.V.'s jealousy may drive him to eliminate them both as well just for good measure. Anyway, Lelouch's confrontation with him had given him the excuse he needed to banish his two children to Japan as political hostages as he had already planned on invading Japan and hoped that Lelouch would grow to hate him so much that he would fake his and Nunnally's death; thus keeping them out of V.V.'s grasp and it worked. Charles had known that Lelouch and Nunnally were alive the entire time. C.C., who had been sent to keep an eye on them, had reported their progress. She had reported that they had made contact with the disgraced Ashford Family, who had agreed to take them in due to their ties with Marianne. When Clovis had died and Zero made his debut, Charles had known that it was Lelouch. Clovis may not have realised it, but he had known about his experimentation on C.C., in fact Charles had pretty much handed C.C. over to him without Clovis realising it and it was hoped that she would escape and find Lelouch and give him the power of Geass, though according to what Marianne had told him, C.C. had been "stolen" by terrorists mistaking her prison for poison gas and by some amazing stroke of luck, Lelouch had gotten caught up in it and that was that. It may not have worked out according to plan, but the end result was still the same, so it did not really matter. Everything Lelouch had done until the Black Rebellion had all been part of Charles's plan. Lelouch may have thought that he was hurting Britannia with all his victories, but all he was doing was removing thorns in Charles's side. When he sent Cornelia to replace Clovis, he had basically sent Cornelia to die. That was part of his plan; Lelouch was supposed to kill Cornelia. Cornelia had pretty much resented him after he seemed to blow off Marianne's assassination as if it had never happened and how he had sent her children to Japan and did not shed a tear over their apparent "deaths". Charles knew that Cornelia had been biding her time; waiting for an opportunity to expose him. She had, after all, conducted several investigations into Marianne's death behind his back and he came to see her as a threat, so he sent her away on various missions to keep her occupied and out of his affairs and when Lelouch emerged as Zero, he saw the perfect opportunity to do away with her for good.

"You may still be alive, Cornelia, but I doubt you're capable of posing a threat to me any longer," he laughed dismissively.

He knew Cornelia was still alive since her body was never recovered and he figured that she must have dropped off the radar, but that did not concern him in the slightest. Cornelia had no doubt lost many of the resources she had had at her disposal and with that in mind; Charles did not view her as a potential threat any longer. Let her roam free on whatever quest she had set for herself. By the time it reached its conclusion, it would already be too late to stop him. However, he did remember back to when Euphemia had announced the establishment of the Specially Administered Zone of Japan. He did not agree with it, but nonetheless, he let Euphemia put her plan into motion as he was interested in the result and saw that it may actually prove beneficial to the Ragnarök Connection in diverting the people's attention, but he did degree that Euphemia would give up her claim to the throne in exchange and was quite surprised when she had agreed without even an ounce of hesitation, which perked his curiosity. However, Lelouch came and then a massacre occurred, though Charles was not stupid. He knew that Lelouch was to blame. He had managed to determine the nature of Lelouch's Geass by studying the accounts of those who claimed that they did not remember anything; including Bartley and Jeremiah Gottwald. Needless to say, he had been impressed by Lelouch and actually praised him claimed that he was worthy of being called his child, though those who had heard him assumed that he was talking about Euphemia as he believed Euphemia to be weak due to her pacifist nature. It was true that Charles had a low opinion of Euphemia and really did not care what became of her. She was nothing more than collateral damage; a waste of space. However, it was only later that he would come to discover that Lelouch's command had been an accident. His Geass had raged out of control and he had foolishly boasted about his power and voiced his example to Euphemia, which was unfortunately misinterpreted as a command, which led to the massacre; not that he cared. Even if that did not happen, he had measures in place to ensure that Lelouch would continue to oppose him as he needed C.C. for the Ragnarök Connection and she had refused to help them after it was discovered that two Code Bearers were needed instead of one as they had initially believed. Anyway, after the massacre, which resulted in Euphemia's death, Lelouch had rallied the Japanese up in rebellion, though Charles was not worried. True, the rebellion came close to succeeding and would have succeeded had Lelouch not abandoned the rebellion, but Lelouch abandoning the rebellion had been part of his plan. He had taken a gamble and sent V.V. to retrieve Nunnally in order to force Lelouch to abandon the rebellion and though it did not go the way he had planned thanks to the interference of Suzaku Kururugi, it still worked to his advantage as Suzaku had handed him over instead of killing him and Charles had used his Geass on Lelouch, suppressing his memories of Marianne, of Nunnally and of ever being a Prince of Britannia and sent him back to "Area Eleven". He had also used his Geass on his classmates, suppressing their memories of Nunnally and in Milly's case, of Lelouch being a prince as she knew his secret.

"Now then, let's see how you'll fair this time, my son," Charles thought with a smirk.

Lelouch was under constant surveillance by the OSI at Ashford Academy led by Villetta Nu, a woman who had discovered Zero's identity and needless to say, Charles had not been pleased about that to say the least. Villetta could have ruined everything and it was fortunate that the poor girl she had used to help her expose Zero's identity had turned on her and given her a spell of amnesia, though she eventually regained her memories and Charles had grudgingly given her the title of Baroness as he knew Villetta had been someone who had been working towards earning a title of nobility. Nevertheless, the condition was that she kept an eye on him. Also keeping an eye on Lelouch was a boy called Rolo, who was acting as Lelouch's younger brother, though Charles knew that he was one of V.V.'s lackeys from the Geass Order and he knew that V.V. had ordered Rolo to kill Lelouch if he ever regained his memories, but he was not concerned. He knew that Lelouch would regain his memories and pick up where he left off in his campaign to bring down Britannia and he was confident that Lelouch would overcome Rolo and his Geass as well as the OSI operatives assigned to observe him. Lelouch had been too full of anger when Suzaku had brought him before him that he had failed to realise the fact that he had not been in the least bit surprised that he was alive or if that thought did enter his mind then he must have assumed that he was just pretty good at hiding it. His plan had been to get Lelouch to hate him and oppose him, bringing him closer to helping him complete the Ragnarök Connection. Charles knew that his son despised him with a passion. It had all been part of the script. Suzaku was an unknown factor, but one that had worked to his advantage. Suzaku's main aim was to become the Knight of One so he could rule over Japan and Charles used this as a means of spiting Lelouch. He had only given Suzaku his position as the Knight of Seven to spite Lelouch and encourage him to hate him even more. Eventually, when Lelouch was ready, he would reveal the truth to him. Of course, he knew that Lelouch would probably feel like he had been played for a fool, but he did not care in the slightest. Once the Ragnarök Connection was completed, the dead and the living would become one, then Lelouch would understand why it had been necessary. He was sure of it. It was why he had sent his children to Japan in the first place. Even if they had died, the idea that they would meet again after the completion of the Ragnarök Connection had provided him with comfort, though if Lelouch died, it would be a major setback as he had not drawn up a plan B, but in truth, despite what he told himself, Lelouch's life did not matter to him in the slightest.

"Everything's progressing nicely," Charles mused to himself before his face became one of worry, "Though the disappearance of Euphemia's body still bothers me."

That was the only thing that made him nervous. It was no mistake that Charles zi Britannia cared little if anything for any of his children as they were only just tools in his eyes and Euphemia was no different. He could care less what had become of her and normally he would have blown off the theft of her body as it did not really matter to him had it not been for the mysterious circumstances in which her body had disappeared. According to the reports, the surveillance camera in her room had encountered a technical glitch that eventually seemed to sort out itself, but when it did, Euphemia's body was gone and the nurse and doctor that had seen to her were both unconscious on the floor and when both came round hours later, neither claimed to have any memories of what had happened, though it was clear that they had seen something. However, what made it so mysterious was that whoever stole the body had mysteriously vanished without a trace. Nothing had been seen either approaching or leaving the Avalon in all the time it had been up in the air while Euphemia had been on board and the Avalon's security teams had painstakingly searched every part of the ship from back to front, top to bottom and through every nook and cranny countless times and found nothing. It was a mystery and Charles had found himself growing increasingly nervous. Normally, it would not have bothered him, but the mysteriousness of Euphemia's disappearance told him that supernatural elements were involved due to the fact that it could not be explained through any scientific or logical means. Heck even if Lelouch and Schneizel had put their heads together, even they could not accomplish something of that magnitude and with nothing to go on, Charles had grudgingly accepted Schneizel's explanation when he had demanded an investigation and Schneizel had refused, saying that an investigation without anything to go on would not get anywhere and as much as he hated to admit it, Schneizel had been right, but it did nothing to alleviate his nervousness.

Many of those who knew about his nervousness who were not aware of the Ragnarök Connection were not in the least bit suspicious over it. After all, after the Black Rebellion had been quashed, Charles had declared that Euphemia had been solely responsible for the massacre and had been arrested and executed by the Britannian Military and many people were now calling her, Princess Massacre. Many of those who knew of Charles's nervousness had just dismissively put it down to the fact that they had no body to prove or disapprove that claim and the Emperor was just fearing that her body would turn up elsewhere disproving his story or worse; Euphemia could still possibly be alive as he had ordered his agents to find and retrieve the body and kill her if it turned out that she was alive. However, that was not the case. What had Charles so nervous was the possibly that someone was plotting to prevent the Ragnarök Connection from taking place; perhaps even the gods themselves. Charles was not a fool. He knew that Euphemia had been confirmed dead as the doctor had said as much to Schneizel and even told him when he questioned him. However, he knew that supernatural forces had been at work as there was no technological device capable of teleportation and teleportation seemed to be the only explanation to explain how the body-snatcher had been able to enter and exit the Avalon unnoticed. He was no fool. Geass was a supernatural power and he would be a fool to assume that Geass was the only source of supernatural power in the world. Unfortunately, Geass was confined to affecting the minds of its users and those they used it on. It could possibly account for the memory loss of the doctor and nurse and the fact that they were both found unconscious, but it could not account for the disappearance of Euphemia's body. Even a Geass that could affect the sight of others and render the user invisible could not account for it as the user would still be visible on the surveillance monitors since Geass could not work over electronic devices such as surveillance cameras and monitor screens and from the reports from the surveillance camera outside in the corridor, between the time Suzaku left to go hunt down Zero and the doctor and nurse entering to check up on the body, no one else had been seen entering or exiting the room. The idea that whoever stole Euphemia's body to revive her in order to help stop the Ragnarök Connection weighed heavily on the Britannian Emperor's mind, though he doubted that Euphemia would be foolish enough to show her face in public. She was the world's most hated person as many of the Britannians; especially those who had suffered at the hands of the angry Japanese populace during the Black Rebellion had grown to resent and despise her as they were not aware of the "fact" that she had "planned" the massacre and that it was because of the massacre that the Black Rebellion had occurred. That fact was not lost to them and looking for someone to blame for it, they saw Euphemia as the prime candidate to take their frustrations out on.

"But then if Euphemia's really been revived, then why hasn't she made her move yet?" Charles mused to himself nervously.

The idea of a power great enough to revive someone sounded preposterous. It sounded like something out of a fantasy novel. Such a feat was beyond even the power of Geass, but that did not mean that other supernatural powers were incapable of it. Charles was not an idiot. However, the fact that Euphemia and her mysterious benefactor had not made themselves known yet despite been given plenty of opportunities in the past was a worrying concept for him. Just what were they doing? Were they biding their time; waiting till he had dropped his guard and been lulled into a false sense of security before they struck? That did seem plausible. It was also possible that he was just getting worried over nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet to suggest Euphemia's return and even if she did, Charles did not view her as a threat since she was not as skilled a tactician as Lelouch or Schneizel, but her benefactor was another story. Since Charles did not know anything about this person, he knew that he had to stay on his guard. As much as he told himself that he was worrying over nothing, a small part of him still refused to let it lie. Euphemia alone was no threat to him, but whoever had taken her might be.

"Damn it, there's not much I can do other than to just wait and see," he growled, shaking his fists, "I hate this; not knowing. I wish you'd just come out and show yourselves. That way we could get this over with."

That much would make him better. If they just came out and faced him, it would make him feel better as he would no longer have to worry about where they were hiding and whatever dispute Euphemia's benefactor had with him could be settled. Unfortunately, for the time being, he could do nothing other than wait and see what happened and then take it from there.

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><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Domino City, Duel Academy Entrance Exam venue, six days previously<strong>

"_GAME ON!" both Zukasu Rikuguru and the duelling proctor shouted in unison as they started their duel_

_**Zukasu**__: 4000 – __**Proctor**__: 4000_

"_Okay, applicant, first turn goes to me," the proctor said as he drew a sixth card to add to the five that he was already holding, which consisted of Big Shield Gardna, Mirror Force, Beaver Warrior, Basic Insect, Negate Attack and Skull Dice, which he just drew, "I summon Big Shield Gardna in defence mode and then I place one card facedown and that ends my turn."_

_He reached for his Big Shield Gardna (100/2600) card and placed it horizontally on the middle monster space of his duel disk and placed his Mirror Force card in the far left spell/trap slot. On the field a man with orange skin and long spiky dark brown hair appeared in a kneeling position wearing a sleeveless purple top with a purple and green outline with the two colours highlighted in triangles, orange trousers and light brown shoes that looked as if they were made from animal skins. The man had a huge golden brown and purple shield held up in front of him as he knelt and if one could see behind the shield, they would see that he was also armed with a small dagger like sword. A facedown card also appeared on the field._

"_Okay, applicant, let's see what you got," the proctor said, almost in a provocative tone._

"_Gladly," Zukasu said with a nod as he drew his sixth card and looked over his hand, which consisted of Knightmare Alliance, Knightmare Frame: Sutherland, Knightmare Frame: Bamides, Mystical Space Typhoon, Knightmare Reinforcements and Chaos Mine, which he just drew, "However, I want to get this over and done with, so if you don't mind, I declare that I'm gonna win this in this turn."_

"_Win this duel in this turn?" the proctor said in a confused tone before he suddenly burst out laughing, "Oh that's rich, a First Turn Kill. I highly doubt that. The only student capable of pulling that off was Zane Truesdale and he's long since graduated and moved on."_

"_I'll be happy to prove you wrong as I play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your facedown card," Zukasu said as he showed the proctor his Mystical Space Typhoon card before placing it in his middle spell/trap slot. _

_The card appeared on the field with the front facing the proctor and then a wind suddenly rushed out of the image on the card that caused the proctor's Mirror Force card to rise up before it shattered to pieces._

"_Then I summon my Knightmare Frame: Bamides to the field," Zukasu went on as he took his Knightmare Frame: Bamides (1000/2400) card from his hand and placed it on the middle monster space._

_On the field, what could only be described as a human-sized white tank supported by three legs in a tri-pod with the third leg at the back formation appeared. The tank also seemed to have shoulders with a missile launcher mounted at the top of each shoulder and mounted beneath the shoulders were two machine guns, the left one smaller than the right one and mounted at the front was a long-range gun underneath what seemed to be the main control area of the tank. At the front of the main control area was a small red orb near the top._

"_My Bamides's special ability enables it to destroy one monster on the field before its main attack," Zukasu announced as the Bamides aimed its long-range gun at Big Shield Gardna and then fired a fireball at it, causing the opposing monster to shatter before disappearing, which caused the proctor to wince in annoyance as he was now left wide-open for a direct attack, "However, before I attack, I play the spell card, Knightmare Reinforcements, which basically lets me take any Knightmare Frame monsters with the same name as the one on the field from either my hand or my deck and summon them to the field."_

_He then showed the proctor his Knightmare Reinforcements card, which showed two Glasgow Knightmare Frames rushing towards a third that looked as if it were banged up and in need of assistance before placing it into a spell/trap slot and then after the card appeared on the field and showed to glow, Zukasu removed his deck from the deck slot and fished out to more Bamides cards and then placed them on the monster spaces on either side of where the original Bamides was. Two more Bamideses (1000/2400x2) appeared; one on either side of the original._

"_So what, they only have one thousand attack points each," the proctor pointed out, "And I have all four thousand of my life points, so once this turn is over, I'll still have one thousand life points left. So much for your First Turn Kill."_

"_I'm not done yet," Zukasu announced as he reached for another card, Knightmare Alliance, which displayed an image of three Sutherland Knightmare Frames raising their jousting lances into the air, crisscrossing them in the same manner as the Three Musketeers._

_He placed the card in a spell/trap slot and the card appeared on the field._

"_I then play the spell, Knightmare Alliance, which is basically a downgraded version of Chthonian Alliance," Zukasu informed the proctor, "By equipping this card to a monster with Knightmare Frame in its name, it gains four hundred attack points for each Knightmare Frame monster with the same name as it and this also includes itself."_

"_Say what?" the proctor said as his eyes widened in shock as he realised what was going on._

"_And I choose my middle Bamides," Zukasu said, pointing at it and the spell card suddenly moved towards the Bamides, passing straight through it before it was directly behind it and it then glowed and vanished._

"_Now then, since you're strength's been enhanced, you have the first attack, my Bamides in the middle," Zukasu said with a nod._

_The Bamides (2200/2400) in the middles aimed both its side guns at the proctor and fired at him and also emptied its two missile launchers as well, scoring a direct hit._

_**Zukasu**__: 4000 – __**Proctor**__: 1800_

"_Bamides on the right, it's your turn," Zukasu declared as he pointed at the proctor and the Bamides opened fired with an identical display to its counterpart._

_**Zukasu**__: 4000 – __**Proctor**__: 800_

"_Oh, come on!" the proctor complained, clearly not too happy about the outcome, "Just what the hell are those cards anyway? I've never seen them before."_

"_Bamides on the left, I trust that you know what to do," Zukasu went on, either not hearing or choosing to ignore the proctor's comment as he pointed at him and the final Bamides repeated the process its two counterparts carried out._

"_Oh, no fair," the proctor said, feeling rather humiliated that he had lost in just one turn to an applicant._

_**Zukasu (winner)**__: 4000 – __**Proctor**__: 0_

"_I suppose congratulations are in order," The proctor said, putting his humiliation to one side, "Zukasu Rikuguru, I suppose that with a display like that, I can easily believe that you graduated at the top of your class at Duel Monsters Prep School. Your title of Prep School's Duel King was definitely not for show and well earned."_

"_Thank you," Zukasu said with a polite Japanese-style bow._

* * *

><p><strong>Present, Duel Academy Island, Chancellor Sheppard's Office<strong>

Jaden stood in Chancellor Sheppard's office watching a screen on the wall to Chancellor Sheppard's right from where he was sitting at his desk. On the screen was a still image of Zukasu in mid-bow in front of the proctor that he had defeated during the Entrance Exams. Jaden, Chancellor Sheppard, Dr Crowler and the proctor who Zukasu had defeated were all in the room and they had just watched the recording of the duel as all Entrance Exam duels were recorded on film for future reference and to ensure that none of the applicants were cheating in ways that could not be detected by the naked eye. Anyway, at Jaden's request, Chancellor Sheppard had decided to review the footage and had called Dr Crowler in since he had been in charge of the Entrance Exams and the proctor whom Zukasu had defeated to get his input.

"I see what you mean, Jaden," Sheppard said as he played the duel back in his mind as he paid attention to Zukasu's monsters, "Aside from Mystical Space Typhoon, all other cards he played are not in any of the registries that list all known cards in the game of Duel Monsters."

"Wait a minute, so does that mean he's using counterfeit cards?" Crowler, who stood to the left of Chancellor Sheppard's desk said in shock and alarm, unable to believe that the top graduate of Duel Monsters Prep School had been duelling with a phony deck.

"That's the mystery of it," Jaden replied with a confused look on his face, "If they were phony cards, then his duel disk surely would have not recognised them, but it did and even if he had reprogrammed his duel disk, Kaiba Corp would have known about it and would have shut his disk down. I'll tell you what else is weird. Once he received his academy-issued duel disk, his old duel disk was sent back to Kaiba Corp for an inspection and found that there was nothing wrong with it. It hadn't been reprogramed or anything."

"Yes, that is strange," Sheppard said, curling the side of his right hand round his chin, "And I'm surprised that the prep school hasn't pursued the matter."

"Well, that's another thing that struck me as odd," Jaden said, looking even more confused, "When Axel questioned the staff on Zukasu's deck, they were clearly confused. It was as if they only just realised it."

"Just why are you so interested in him anyway?" Crowler asked, clearly not at all happy with the situation as Zukasu had seemed like the model-student who did not get with the in-crowd of the Obelisk Blue Dorm just like Alexis, though he did realise that Zukasu's cards were not registered in any of the Duel Monsters card lists and was having a hard time accepting it.

"I'm not gonna lie here, it's to do with Euphemia," Jaden said with a sigh.

"Euphemia, that girl you recommended here?" Crowler said, looking confused, "What has she got to do with it?"

"You already know the story behind Euphemia, right?" Jaden said, to which Crowler and Sheppard both nodded as Jaden had told the two of them about his experiences in Euphemia's world, "Well, you remember I told you about Suzaku Kururugi, right?"

"Uh huh," Crowler said with a nod, "But I really don't see how…"

He suddenly trailed off as he realised exactly what Jaden was getting at just by comparing the two names.

"Suzaku Kururugi sounds like an anagram of Zukasu Rikuguru," the proctor said, voicing the realisation that Crowler made.

"Uh huh, and not only that; but Zukasu looks like Suzaku's identical twin brother, though Suzaku has a lighter skin tone; but other than that, they're both exact doubles of one another," Jaden concluded and Crowler's eyes widened in pure shock and disbelief.

"You think someone's after Euphemia?" Sheppard suggested.

"Possibly, but from what I've seen of Zukasu, so far, there's no malicious intention and he seems totally clueless, though he is familiar with Euphemia, but he doesn't know why," Jaden said, remembering how genuinely clueless Zukasu seemed about the situation.

As of yet, he had been unable to determine if it was all just an act or if Zukasu was genuinely in the dark about his attraction to Euphemia. However, from what he had observed so far, he was leaning towards believing the latter.

"Anyway, what do we do about him?" Crowler asked, feeling a bit furious.

Zukasu was the top-ranking student in this year's batch of new students. He was basically a male version of Alexis Rhodes in the sense that he did not follow the crowd in looking down on those who were not Obelisks. He was the perfect model-student and Crowler had been proud to have him in his class and his dorm, but now upon learning these revelations, he was not so sure anymore. He felt like a fan who had just realised that their idol was not as great as he had originally thought.

"Unfortunately, without any proof, we can't do anything," Sheppard said as he rested his elbows on his desk and clasped his hands in front of his face.

"No proof, but he's using illegal cards, what more proof could you possibly need?" Crowler shouted out in protest and the proctor nodded.

"I concur," he said simply, "When I duelled him, I did not recognise any of the cards he used aside from Mystical Space Typhoon."

"But his duel disk is accepting his cards as if they were legal," Sheppard countered in "as a matter of fact" tone, "And we know that he hasn't tampered with his duel disk."

"That remains to be seen," Crowler said, feeling more furious as he thought of Zukasu possibly being up to no good, "Who's to say that he's somehow found a way to reprogram his duel disk in a way that Kaiba Corp's supercomputer can't detect and then once he came here, reset his duel disk to its original program?"

"That is possible," Sheppard admitted, but then his face became stern, "But we have no proof of that. So here's what I propose we do. We'll wait till he duels and then after the duel, we'll confiscate his duel disk and then look it over."

"Yes," Crowler said with a nod as he started to calm down, "I can accept that."

Jaden also nodded in agreement as he had to admit that Crowler's theory of Zukasu resetting his duel disk's programming did sound plausible, but somehow he doubted it.

The proctor's eyes suddenly widened as if he just made a realisation.

"Um, with all this talk on Zukasu and the legitimacy of his deck, I just remembered something," he said, causing Jaden to raise his eyebrows in curiosity.

"Oh, and what's that?" Sheppard said, looking at the proctor questioningly.

"Well, sir, Zukasu's not the only one with a strange deck," the proctor said simply, causing Jaden's eyes to widen, but the proctor ignored him and continued to speak, "I have a friend from North Academy and he told me that this year, this girl who became a student also had some illegitimate cards that somehow managed to bypass the duel disk's security measures. I don't know exactly what her deck is, but my friend told me that when they examined her duel disk, they found nothing that was out of place with the programming and that was immediately after she duelled."

"Did your friend give you the girl's name?" Jaden asked curiously and the proctor nodded as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper and then handed it to Jaden who looked at it and his eyes suddenly bulged out their sockets in complete shock and disbelief, "Nelkal Uzkikō, no way… that's Kallen Kōzuki."

Sure enough, staring right back at him with dark reddish brown hair and big blue eyes and trademark, spiky fanned-out hair at the back was none other than a dark skin-toned version of Kallen Kōzuki, though from the look of her expression in the picture, she did not look like someone who wanted to make friends.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the First-year students were in a PE class, but Stella had intentionally stayed in the locker room watching Euphemia get changed into her PE uniform, which consisted of a pair of blue joggers and a white exercise jacket with long blue sleeves and collar and had the Duel Academy logo on the left side of the jacket. Stella smirked as she held her fake love note in her hand. Her reason for spying on Euphemia was to see what locker she was using so she knew where to place her phony love letter and once Euphemia left; completely unaware of Stella's presence, Stella sprang into action as she walked up to the locker and placed the letter halfway through the middle opening near the top of the door.<p>

"Ha, ha, ha, by tonight I'll finally be rid of that Pink-haired Floozy and things will be as they should be," she said to herself with an evil smirk on her face as she then turned to walk in the direction Euphemia and the other students had left in, "Enjoy your remaining time here, Floozy for the time of your demise is at hand."

She could not help but tremble with excitement as she thought to how she was going to duel Euphemia and defeat her this time; crushing her spirit to the point where she could never hope to rebuild it and then she would drag her out into the open in the area of the Boys' Dorm and dump her there, where she had arranged for two boys to "discover" her and turn her in, which would lead to her getting expelled as intruding in the opposite gender's dorms after curfew was explicitly prohibited; especially if you were not from that particular dorm i.e. a Slifer intruding in the Obelisk Dorm and if need be, Stella would get her uncle to see to it that Euphemia was expelled and to explain her state of fright, she had also made arrangements for a poor homeless man to come to Duel Academy so she could set him up by making everyone believe that he had raped Euphemia.

"Ha, I'm so brilliant," she thought to himself rather proudly, "Nothing can possibly go wrong. Sorry, old timer, but you're just a necessary sacrifice in my quest to greatness."

She knew that it was wrong stitching up a harmless man for a rape that had never taken place, but Stella saw it as a necessary sacrifice and did not care that she would possibly ruin that man's life in the process. After all, he was homeless and penniless, so in Stella's mind, he did not have much of a life for her to ruin and with that in mind, she was able to pretty much kill her conscience; plus seeing the innocent suffer and knowing that they did nothing to deserve it brought out a wave of euphoria in her like nothing else. She found it fun and the fun part was that they did nothing to deserve their punishment. However, as she left the locker room, the letter she left in the locker slipped out of the opening and fell onto the floor.

* * *

><p>A little while later, all the students were lined up standing in front of a woman with short brownish red hair with a long gelled somewhat spiky strand running down the right side of her face at the front and bluish grey eyes. She wore dark purple joggers and a light purple exercise jacket with dark purple sleeves and the Duel Academy logo on the left side of the jacket and also had circular silver-framed earrings with blue dome-shaped orbs in them.<p>

"Hi everyone, my name is Fonda Fontaine," the woman introduced, "Are you all ready to sweat?"

"And I'm Sophia Arenson, her assistant," the voice of Sophia came as she walked up beside Fonda dressed in an identical suit to hers.

"Oh, before we begin, I notice that there're two students absent, Yumi Fujiharu and Stella Harrington," Fonda went on, though Sophia notably winced as Fonda said Stella's name.

However, as if on cue, Stella immediately came running dressed in her PE uniform.

"Sorry I'm late, Coach," she said in an eerily calm tone that held just a twinge of excitement, "I had to use the bathroom."

"Speak of the devil," Abigail grumbled as she glared at the cruel teal-haired girl.

However, Euphemia gave Stella a suspicious look as she knew that Yumi was still not here and wondered if she had run into Stella and Stella had done something to her. It was the second class of the day and after the last class ended, Yumi had told her to go on ahead as she desperately had to use the bathroom and Stella's excuse for being late being the same; it just unnerved her as she worried for her friend's safety. However, Stella was not paying attention to her and to her surprise, she saw Stella give Sophia a hate-filled glare when she noticed her and Sophia must have noticed it as she trembled under the cruel girl's gaze and Euphemia could not help but think back to the previous day after Hassleberry had defeated her and Sophia had seen them and initially misunderstood the situation and then when it was sorted and Stella's name popped up, she warned them of her.

"I wonder if they have a past with one another," she thought before shaking her head, "As curious as I am, it's really none of my business."

* * *

><p>Back in the locker room, Yumi came rushing in rather quickly as she was clearly running late.<p>

"Oh man, oh man, I can't believe I'm late," she said, feeling rather embarrassed and humiliated at what happened after the first class.

She had needed to use the bathroom really badly and had been so desperate that she had run into the boys' bathroom by mistake. Of course, it was not until after she had done her business and came out of the cubicle and noticed the row of urinals on the opposite wall and two boys who had been in the process of washing their hands staring at her with stunned looks on their faces before she had realised her mistake and to make matters worse, there had been students outside in the corridor that had seen her go in and had been waiting on her to come out and then, they started laughing at her and seeing how she was a Slifer; it only served to make it a whole lot worse as the students all had been Ra Yellows and Obelisk Blues. Even the two boys who she had surprised inside the bathroom were Obelisks. It had been humiliating to say the least and without Euphemia around to give her support, she felt like she just wanted to curl up into a ball and just disappear.

Anyway, she was in such a rush that she accidentally slipped on the floor and fell flat on her face; right on top of Stella's fake love letter.

"Ouch, that hurt," she said as she got to her knees and held her face in her hands as she felt the pain of landing on the floor rush through her face. However, when she opened her eyes and started to climb to her feet, she noticed the envelope on the floor and curiosity overtaking her; she picked it up and read the front of it, failing to notice the lip-shaped lipstick mark on the back.

"To my dearly beloved Euphemia," she read aloud as she read over the front and felt curious as to who would write to Euphemia in a secret-admirer type fashion, though she also felt a bit jealous that Euphemia had a secret-admirer and she did not, "Some people just have all the luck."

However, without even realising what she was doing, Yumi opened up the back of the envelope, still not noticing the lipstick on the back and walked into a corner of the room and looked over her shoulder to make sure no one came in or looked over her shoulder as she then turned back to read the letter, which she had taken out of the envelope. She knew that it was not right and she did feel guilty over reading over a letter that was clearly not for her. Her guilt was only intensified since the person the letter was meant for was her new best friend and by doing this, she was; in effect, violating Euphemia's trust in her, but her curiosity was just too strong to ignore and she found herself acting without thinking; as if she was on auto-pilot; plus the possibility that someone may be pulling a prank on her friend did come to mind and it did help in easing her guilt somewhat.

"Meet me behind the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm tonight and become my undying loyal sexual plaything and I'll give you pleasure unlike anything you've experienced before…" Yumi read out as she took a few shocked steps backwards and her tone became increasingly disgusted at what she read, "Signed Zukasu Rikuguru."

However, she had been in so much shock that she failed to realise that Zukasu's name was spelled as Zoocassoo Reecoogooroo and had pronounced those two words as English speakers would as; despite being Japanese, she knew an awful lot about the Roman alphabet and the different sounds that certain letters made when together in the English language and as soon as she read those two words, pronouncing them using English lettering sounds, the fact that the name was spelled wrong became lost to her as she automatically assumed that Zukasu had written the note.

"Oh, well I… Oh that goddamn pervert," she said in pure disgust and revulsion, feeling rather infuriated that Zukasu would dare do this to Euphemia and rather unpleasant images of Zukasu forcing Euphemia into strange situations and positions against her will came to mind, "I'm gonna murder that bastard."

Of course, she knew that Zukasu and Euphemia had some sort of connection with each other and had become fast friends, but if what this letter said was true, then it seemed that Zukasu was only wanting to use Euphemia for sex, if the language in the letter was anything to go by and remembering Euphemia and how friendly and kind she was, Yumi just could not bear the thought of her friend being hurt and the idea of someone using her in such a disgusting manner and then discarding her once they grew tired of her infuriated the Japanese brunette to no end. Zukasu seemed nice enough and she never would have imagined him as a two-timing sexual predator and playboy. In effect, she felt betrayed; she felt that Zukasu had betrayed her. She felt that he had betrayed Euphemia.

"Well then, I'll just have to take matters into my own hands," she thought as she took the letter and the envelope and put them both in her jacket pocket, "I'm going to go in Euphie's place, you two-bit horn dog."

It was an unbelievable revelation and she had a hard time accepting it; especially since at first glance, Zukasu did not seem like the sort of person that would be into that sort of thing and looked genuinely kind enough, but Yumi knew that sometimes, appearances could be deceptive and in her anger and fury over what she had read in the letter had blinded her to the fact that the letter was clearly fake and that Zukasu had not written it.

* * *

><p>Later at night, Stella, Eileen and Hailey all knelt behind a bush at the back of the boys' area of the Obelisk Blue Dorm lying in wait for Euphemia. Stella was feeling rather excited as she felt that Euphemia would come despite what she had written in the note. She knew that Euphemia would probably be outraged and infuriated at what she had read and would probably feel that she had been betrayed by someone she had considered a friend, but she figured that Euphemia would show up to confront "Zukasu" over it anyway.<p>

"And as an added bonus, I can also make it easier for me to dispose of that Mecha-freak as well," she thought to herself as she planned on targeting Zukasu once she had dealt with Euphemia, "I'll show him what happens to those who think they can steal what's rightfully mine."

"So, Stella, why are we here again?" Hailey asked, clearly not happy at being out so late as it was after curfew and there was the fear that they would get caught.

"We're here because Stella's gonna put that Slifer Whore, Euphemia in her place and then she going to get her expelled and out of our hair," Eileen explained for Stella, who looked rather annoyed at Hailey's question.

"But what if we're caught?" Hailey asked, causing Stella to growl furiously; unable to stand it any longer, "I know that you have issues with this girl Stella, but I don't understand why Eileen and I are here."

"Just shut the hell up!" Stella barked as she turned to glare at the short-haired brunette, "You're ruining the mood. You two are here to bear witness over my triumph over the Pink-haired Floozy as I prefer it whenever I have an audience to watch me ruin my opponents' lives and don't worry, we won't get caught."

"How can you be sure?" Hailey asked feeling rather sceptical.

"Well, let's put it to you this way," Stella replied with a rather boastful smirk, "On the off chance that we are caught; I won't get into trouble, but as for you two… you're on your own."

Both Eileen and Hailey both turned to look at one another, though they did not know why their leader's answer surprised them. After spending as long as they had hanging out with Stella, they both knew her well enough to know what she was like. They knew that Stella only hung out with them to help boast her ego as well as use them as human punching bags to unleash her wrath on whenever she was mad and would abandon them when the chips were down and yet, they were both too afraid of her to abandon her. They knew what Stella was like. If they did abandon her and try to move on, then Stella would use her family's resources and connections to ruin not only them; but their entire families as well as being with Stella for so long had taught them that the Harrington Family not only went after their targets, but they also went after their target's family and friends as well. With this in mind, neither Eileen nor Hailey dared walk out on Stella as it could prove to be the biggest mistake of their lives.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Euphemia had just entered her room with a towel slung over her shoulder.<p>

"Okay, Yumi, the outhouse's all yours now," she said as she took the towel and rubbed it against her face.

She had just gotten back from the outhouse, which was where the Slifer students went to get washed and Euphemia had come back after taking a shower and was confused to see that Yumi was not in the room and it concerned her. In fact, Yumi's recent behaviour concerned her since after she joined the PE class; she seemed rather withdrawn and had kept sending Zukasu furious glares for the rest of the day. Euphemia remembered asking if she had a run-in with Stella while she was in the bathroom and though Yumi had assured her that she did not meet Stella and that she had just rushed into the boys' bathroom by mistake, she could not help but feel that something was off; especially after Zukasu had come to talk to her and Yumi rather uncharacteristically ushered her away from him rather hastily while shooting him a nasty glare, confusing both her and him. However, when asked about it, Yumi had just told her that it was nothing she should worry about and that she would handle it; whatever "it" was.

"Yumi's gone," Blair said from the top bunk as she sat up and stared down at Euphemia, "And she seemed pretty pissed off as well."

"She's been acting strange all day since PE class this morning," Euphemia said, clearly confused, "And she seems to have developed a hatred for Zukasu as well and seems determined to keep me away from him."

"Really, I didn't know," Blair said in equal confusion, "Just what did he do to upset her?"

"That's just it, I don't know," Euphemia replied with a sigh before shaking her head and giving Blair a serious look, "Never mind that. Did she say where she was going?"

"No, all she said was that she was going to castrate a pervert," Blair revealed with a shrug.

"Oh my," Euphemia said as her eyes widened in shock as she somehow knew that the "pervert" that Yumi had told Blair about was Zukasu, "Yumi must've misunderstood something somewhere."

"Huh, what are you on about?" Blair asked in confused curiosity.

"I don't know," Euphemia said, shaking her head as her worry over Yumi increased, "Obviously Yumi must've heard someone talking about Zukasu and misunderstood something they said; something probably involving me."

Before Blair could reply to that, Euphemia had already turned on her heel and was out the door.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Yumi practically stormed her way over to the assigned meeting place; behind the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm where only a set of bushes grew near the wall of the building and she was determined that she was going to sort Zukasu out. Normally, she would have been too timid to do something like this, but the fact that she had made a genuine friend and now it seemed that someone, whom she had also seen as a friend wanted to exploit that friend filled her with a fury she never dreamed she could ever possess. The fear of her new friend getting hurt and being unable to defend her scared her greatly and that was something she was determined to prevent and if she had been thinking clearly, she would have realised that she had gathered up courage she did not know she had, but the fear of Euphemia being hurt and the desire to protect her newest friend overpowered her usual timid nature.<p>

"Okay, Zukasu, you conniving deceitful pervert, come out and show yourself," she declared in a demanding tone, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your note to Euphie was accidentally intercepted by me, so I decided to come in her place."

However, what happened next totally stunned her and caused all that courage she had gathered up until now to rush out of her.

"THAT'S NOT THE FLOOZY!" Stella screamed in shocked disbelief as she stood up from behind the bush with her hands on either side of her face, "IT'S THAT COUNTER TRAP JAP-WHORE!"

"What the… Stella…?" Yumi said as her eyes widened in alarm and then a sudden realisation hit her, "You mean that this was just a setup?"

Eileen and Hailey both stood up as well in equal disbelief.

"Wow, how did that happen?" Eileen said, though her tone had a hint of funny amusement in it.

"How the hell should I know?" Hailey said, shrugging her shoulders.

Yumi just stared in shock, unable to believe what had just happened. It had clearly been a setup by Stella as part of her retaliation for losing to Euphemia and Yumi could not believe how she ended up walking right into Stella's trap despite the fact that it was for Euphemia. Now that she thought about the letter, it did make sense. She should have known that Zukasu had not written the letter as he clearly did not look the type that would be into such gross activities such as the ones that the letter was suggesting. He had shown both her and Euphemia nothing but kindness and had proven that not all Obelisks were delusional in believing that they were unbeatable. Remembering all the glares she had given him since coming to PE class and how he had looked genuinely confused and hurt by those glares; especially after when he wanted to talk to Euphemia and she had rather rudely and hastily ushered her away from him while shooting him a rather nasty glare made her feel like a total idiot. How could she have been so blind not to see this sooner? She knew that Stella had been planning on getting back at Euphemia for her defeat and given Zukasu's previous personality and how he had been nothing but friendly towards them, Yumi felt absolutely sick and disgusted at herself for making those assumptions just because she had seen the letter signed in his name. She felt as if she owed Zukasu an apology.

"Argh, never mind that," Stella growled with a hand over her eye as she frustratingly shook her head, bringing Yumi back to reality, "It doesn't matter who got the note as I can still get the Floozy to duel me. We'll just use her snivelling little Jap friend as bait."

Yumi's eyes widened in realisation as she heard Stella's comment, but before she could turn to run, Eileen and Hailey had already rushed over to her and grabbed her by the arms.

"I have to say that this isn't what I had in mind, but using you as bait to lure that Pink-haired Floozy here's much better as I also get a little extra collateral damage," Stella said rather cruelly as she flashed Yumi a smile that was equally as cruel as her voice, "Of course, for what I have planned, you may be able to contradict my script, so I'll just have to silence you, won't I?"

She then flashed Yumi a rather wickedly sadistic grin as Yumi's eyes widened in horror as she knew exactly what Stella had planned for her and she knew that she was perfectly capable of doing it and being able to sleep at night as well. Yumi started to struggle against Eileen and Hailey's vice-like grips on her arms as Stella walked over to her with that evil sadistic smirk on her face, but the two girls' holds were just too strong for her.

"Once the Floozy gets here, I'll duel her and then leave her where she will be discovered by a few boys in the building behind me," Stella explained in a boastful tone, "And then she'll be expelled for breaking campus rules. I'll have my uncle step in if I have to and to explain her soon-to-be fearful state, I've arranged for some homeless degenerate to come here by promising him a large sum of money, but what he doesn't know is that he's going to be arrested for a rape that never took place."

She then threw her head back and let out a rather evil laugh that caused Yumi and even Eileen and Hailey to tremble as all three felt shivers run up and down their spines. Both Eileen and Hailey looked shocked that Stella was willing to go so far as to frame an innocent man for a crime that clearly would not take place, but neither one of them dared voice their concerns as they were both afraid of what Stella would do to them.

"You fiend," Yumi spat as she glared at the cruel teal-haired girl, "How can you do that? How can you just go and ruin a poor man's life like that?"

"He's just a homeless bum; a nameless nobody who doesn't have much of a life," Stella said cruelly and uncaringly as she waved a dismissive hand at the Japanese girl, "I'm not really ruining much, am I? Besides, one thing I just love is getting people to get their hopes up about obtaining their hopes and dreams and then just at the last moment when they think they've succeeded, I cause their whole world to come crashing down on them. I find that fun and the part I find the most fun is that they didn't deserve it."

"You're cruel," Yumi said, unable to believe that Stella was willing to admit so much, "You're an evil fiend."

"At least I'm strong!" Stella snapped in sudden anger that seemed to materialise out of the blue, "Being strong is all that matters in life. The world is a cruel and evil place and the only way to survive is to be just as evil and cruel. You say that evil's wrong… well I say that being evil is what makes you powerful. All those who are just goody-goodies are weak pathetic fools that live pointless delusions."

Yumi opened her mouth to protest, but then immediately closed it as she realised that trying to reason with this girl would be pointless. She was curious though as to how and why Stella came to believe such notions, but now was not the time to dwell on those things as Stella started to advance on her and Eileen and Hailey both released her and then pushed her towards the cruel teal-haired girl. Stella then reached out her arms and grabbed Yumi by her arms and flashed her a sadistically cruel smile and just then, Yumi panicked as she started to struggle from Stella's grip.

"It's useless to struggle, you Jap-slut," Stella boasted, full of pride, "It's your own damn fault for discovering that note instead of the Floozy and now, you must pay the price."

However, Yumi was not listening as she continued to struggle. She was too afraid of what Stella was going to do to her and to make matters worse; she had not told anyone where she had gone. Sure, she had spoken to Blair when she had returned to their room, but she had been too furious over the possibility of Zukasu masking his true nature to tell her anything and now here she was at the mercy of this cruel and hateful girl who was going to do who knew what to her just to spite her friend and force her into a duel. It just did not seem fair, but then again, Stella had a point. She had discovered the note intended for Euphemia and by deciding to come in her place, believing that Zukasu had malicious intentions; she had in effect brought this on herself. However, without even thinking, Yumi opened her mouth and then reaching for Stella's left forearm and clamped down on it as hard as she could, sinking her teeth into her skin and causing the sadistic girl to let out a rather ear-piercing shriek of pain, causing her grip on the Japanese girl to loosen and Yumi then shoved her to the ground before turning and running for her life past Stella's two lackeys, who were both frozen with shock after seeing their captive biting their leader.

"YOU FUCKING JAP-WHORE, I'M GONNA SKIN YOU ALIVE!" Stella screamed in pure fury as she glared after Yumi's fleeing form before turning her glare on her two unwilling co-conspirators as she picked herself up from the ground, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE LOOKIN' PRETTY, YOU TWO! GET THE HELL AFTER HER!"

Both Eileen and Hailey both flinched at Stella's furious tone, effectively coming out of their states of shock and almost immediately turned on their heels and chased after the fleeing brunette. Stella growled as she placed a hand over where Yumi had bitten her and then almost immediately withdrew as she felt a small amount of wetness on the wound and her eyes widened in pure shock as she turned her hand over to look at her palm and notice a familiar crimson red liquid staining her palm.

"She drew blood, I shed my blood for that disgusting…" she said to herself; all the while her rage increasing until she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence as her eyes narrowed in rage and she then reached into the inside of her blazer and pulled out a black-handled dagger-like knife and screamed as she joined her two lackeys in chasing down the Japanese brunette.

Yumi looked back and her fear only increased and her eyes widened in pure terror as she noticed Stella chasing after her with a look of pure murderous hate-filled rage with a knife in her hand. She was under no illusions of what Stella was going to do if she caught up with her and with that in mind, she increased her pace.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BLOOD-SUCKING BITCH, SO I CAN GOUGE YOUR EYES OUT!" Stella screamed, completely consumed by her rage, "AND THEN I'M GONNA MAKE SURE YOUR CHILDREN NEVER COME INTO EXISTENCE BEFORE I FINALLY SLIT YOUR DAMN THROAT!"

That gave Yumi even more of an incentive to get away from this insane girl and she found herself running even faster.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" she screamed as she closed her eyes and continued to run.

"Yumi?" a voice came from the side, causing everyone to stop and turn to their left as Euphemia emerged from a group of trees, looking rather concerned.

However, before anyone could react to this, the sound of a twig snapping and running footsteps grabbed their attention, causing then to look in the direction Yumi had been running and Stella's eyes widened in shock and she saw Zukasu leap into the air performing a strange spin-kick (think Suzaku) and he came right at her, kicking the knife out of her hand and then he slammed into her with his body, knocking her to the ground.

"That's quite enough out of you, Stella!" he said sternly as he glared down at her, "Really, hurting people is one thing, but when you resort to murder… that's stepping well over the line."

"YOU STAY OUTTA THIS, MECHA-FREAK!" Stella screamed as she picked herself up; glaring at Zukasu all the while, "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!"

"Oh, Euphie!" Yumi said as she immediately ran towards Euphemia and then buried her head in her chest with tears in her eyes as she sobbed, "It was awful, I thought I was gonna die. She was really gonna kill me."

Euphemia just wrapped her arms round Yumi's sobbing form and soothing rubbed her back to calm her down, but her gaze was firmly maintained on the cruel teal-haired girl as she walked over to where the knife she had had in her hand had landed and picked it up. Zukasu dropped into a martial arts stance, ready to attack if Stella decided to lunge at him with the knife, but fortunately for him, she just put in into a pocket on the inside of her blazer.

"You've really gone too far this time, Stella," Euphemia said as she glared at the girl she had defeated when she first arrived, "Bringing a knife on campus. You could get expelled for that; not to mention you threatened to kill my friend, so you could also be arrested for attempted murder."

"Spare me," Stella scoffed uncaringly as she glared at Euphemia; knowing full well that her plan to had now effectively gone down the tubes, "You think I care. My uncle's on the Duel Academy board of directors; not to mention my family has a massive amount of influence worldwide, so I can pretty much get away with anything without having to spend even a second in jail. Even if you had undeniable proof, it still wouldn't help because there isn't anyone in the world who isn't afraid of my family. All it would take is a few threats against jury members, the lawyers and the judge's families and friends and I'll be off the hook and anyone foolish enough to believe that we're bluffing… well they'll be financially ruined as they'll have spent their finances on their family members' funerals."

"Whatever," Euphemia said, shaking her head in disgust, though whether Stella was being truthful or if she was just hyping up her family's reputation in an attempt to intimidate them was debatable.

Zukasu's expression though, turned rather grave as it was clear that he believed that Stella was being truthful, but he then turned to face Euphemia and Yumi, obviously deciding to put his thoughts on this revelation to the back of his mind.

"Okay, just what's going on here?" he asked, looking at Yumi as his look softened somewhat, "And this wouldn't have anything to do with why you've been glaring at me all day, would it?"

Yumi flinched at Zukasu's words as she looked over at him with her head still buried in Euphemia's chest, but she very slowly raised her head and nodded as Euphemia let go of her and gently coaxed her into turning round. Yumi then reached into the right pocket of her blazer and took out the letter and envelope that she had discovered earlier and then handed it to Zukasu.

"Lipstick?" he said as he noticed the lipstick mark on the back of the envelope, causing Euphemia to raise a curious eyebrow and Yumi to look in confusion as she did not remember seeing lipstick on the envelope, but then again, she had never seen the back of the envelope; just the front.

Zukasu read the letter and his face twisted into a look of pure disgust as he noticed the implied tone within the letter and then Yumi's attitude towards him suddenly made sense as he had wondered what he could have done to have upset her after he noticed her glaring at him and when he had gone to talk with Euphemia, Yumi had quickly ushered her away from him and shot him a rather nasty glare that seemed to say "Stay away from us". It now all made sense, but upon noticing that the letter was signed with an obvious misspelling of his own name, he let out a chuckle.

"Well, I suppose your attitude makes sense now, Yumi, but my name isn't even spelled right," he said, though he knew that since the letter was written in English and with each individual sound that each syllable of the misspelled words made, judging from the placement of the letters, it did indeed sound like his name and he guessed that Yumi must have been reading the letter aloud or to herself and as soon as she said each syllable of the two misspelled words, the shock of saying his name must have blinded her to the fact that his name had been spelled wrong.

"Huh?" Yumi said as Zukasu handed her back the letter and she read over it again with Euphemia looking over her shoulder as she read it for herself

"Disgusting," Euphemia said, shaking her head as she found herself repulsed at what she read and she turned to glare at Stella as she guessed that she had written the letter, "Never in a million years would I consent to such vulgar antics, oh and by the way, your Romanisation of Japanese names absolutely suck."

"What?" Stella said as her eyes widened in pure outrage; enraged that this pink-haired floozy had dared criticise her ability to write.

"It's true though," Zukasu said with a nod, "In the Roman alphabet, my name is spelt; Z, U, K, A, S, U and my family name is spelt R, I, K, U, G, U, R, U. You've spelt my name based on the English placement of letters that make sounds, but the letter placements of Japanese words that are written in the Roman alphabet make different sounds for example, a U in a Japanese word has the same sound that two Os make in an English word."

Yumi suddenly felt even more of an idiot than she did before. Not only did she judge Zukasu without thinking, but she had also done so after reading his misspelled name; making it obvious that the letter was a fake, but unfortunately, she had been reading in the words in English and after reciting each individual syllable of Zukasu's misspelled name in English, she realised that she had said the name, Zukasu Rikuguru and in her shock at hearing herself say that, she had totally forgotten that the name had been misspelled. She had not even so much as double-checked the letter after she had read it and had immediately given into her anger at feeling betrayed by Zukasu when Zukasu had not betrayed her or Euphemia at all.

"And lipstick…?" Zukasu went on; unaware that Yumi was berating herself for her own mistake, "What's with that?"

Stella just glared at him as he showed her the back of the envelope as she realised that she had made a grave error in her plan and her feelings of embarrassment were only amplified when Eileen and Hailey, who had no idea that she had used lipstick on the letter both turned to give her questioning looks.

"Why use lipstick if the letter was supposed to be from a boy?" Zukasu went on, though it was obvious that he, Euphemia and even Yumi were struggling to contain their laughter, "I think that would've been a dead giveaway that it was a fake even before anyway got to reading the letter. What sort of a guy uses lipstick on a love letter?"

* * *

><p>"ACHOO!" Dr Crowler sneezed as he walked into his bedroom in the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm as he was planning on getting ready for bed, "Oh my, I hope I'm not coming down with a cold."<p>

He was still having a hard time coming to terms with the revelations that Jaden had made about Zukasu and in truth, it annoyed him, but Jaden had said that since Zukasu had done nothing wrong, then there was nothing he could do to discipline him. It seemed that whatever it was Zukasu was involved in; even he did not seem aware of it and with that in mind, Dr Crowler found that he could rest easy, knowing that Zukasu would not be an immediate threat, though that could change in the future, but Crowler hoped that he could coax Zukasu into turning on his superiors; that is assuming that Jaden's paranoia was indeed well-placed. After all, Jaden had told him and Sheppard that it may just be that… just harmless paranoia, but Crowler knew that Jaden was not convinced of that and neither was he as Zukasu did look like this Suzaku Kururugi as Jaden showed them both a picture of Suzaku and the resemblance between the boy in the picture and the boy who was Duel Academy's top freshman was uncanny. If it wasn't for the difference in their skin tones, Crowler would have been completely convinced that Zukasu and Suzaku were identical twin brothers.

However, as he thought back to his sneeze that seemed to come out of the blue, he could not help but feel overcome with a feeling of pure dread as he had the feeling that someone may have brought up something that he had done in the past and he could not help but think back to his first attempt at getting Jaden expelled from the academy three years ago when he had written a fake love letter to him, claiming that it was from Alexis to lure him over to the Obelisk Blue Girls' Dorm where he would lie in wait with a camera and then when Jaden came looking for Alexis, he would take a photograph, thereby getting evidence of Jaden breaking campus rules and get him expelled. He had even used red lipstick to make the note more convincing.

Unfortunately however, somehow, Jaden's friend, Syrus ended up getting the note and believing that it was for him, had gone instead of Jaden and Crowler's shocked reaction had alerted the girls, but fortunately for him, it was Syrus they had noticed, though Crowler remembered how offended he had been when one of the girls had announced that a boy was in the dorm and believing that he had been discovered had claimed that he was a man before realising his mistake and then, in a panic had run off the shore and fell into the lake, but the girls had been so focused on Syrus that they had not heard him and when Jaden finally did show up looking for Syrus, water had gotten into his camera rendering it unusable, though when he saw Jaden and Alexis duelling, he silently rooted for Alexis hoping that she would "put him in his place", but Jaden won and as promised, Alexis and her two friends, Jasmine and Mindy let both Syrus and Jaden go without turning them in and what embarrassed Crowler even further was that when he had checked the class register the following day, he had been shocked to discover that he had spelled Alexis's name wrong. He had spelt it as Alekiss Roads instead of Alexis Rhodes and being who he was back then; unable to face up to his own foolish mistakes, he blamed Jaden for it just in order to make himself feel better.

* * *

><p>Back outside near the back of the dorm, Euphemia, Yumi, Zukasu and even Eileen and Hailey were all now laughing at Stella for her stupidity in writing her fake love letter. Needless to say, Stella was absolutely livid. How dare they mock her? How dare they criticise her ability to write? She felt like a five-year-old being corrected for a spelling mistake by the teacher at school. So she had misspelled Zukasu's name and used lipstick when she should not have, so what? Someone had read the note and come looking for him anyway, though not the person she had hoped for. What right had they to criticise her? She had made mistakes and unfortunately, being told this was not something she wanted to hear as it reminded her of the fact that she was just like everyone else since everyone made mistakes. However, she believed that she was perfect in every possible way and being proven wrong was something she was not going to stand. If she was not perfect then she would make herself perfect. She was determined more than ever to find a way to rid herself of her drawbacks and limitations.<p>

"THAT'S IT!" she screamed, unable to take anymore, "I WON'T STAND FOR THIS! YOU'LL DUEL ME RIGHT HERE AND NOW MECHA-FREAK!"

She then produced her duel disk from inside her blazer and strapped it onto her left arm.

"You want to duel me, huh?" Zukasu said after he recovered from his laughter and shot the cruel teal-haired girl a serious look.

Stella smirked as she calmed down and then turned to face Euphemia.

"I was going to duel the Floozy over there, but since you had the audacity to insult me, I figured why not deal with you here and now," she said as she turned back to face Zukasu with a smirk, "After all, you and I have unfinished business from back in prep school, don't we?"

"How can I forget?" Zukasu said as he also produced his own duel disk, which was identical to Stella's; even down to the blue markings, "You always had to be first at everything and you would settle for nothing less."

"Of course, I'm the best," Stella boasted as she placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest as if trying to make herself look important and then levelled a glare in Zukasu's direction, "And I won't stand for anyone stealing what's mine."

"You're delusional, you know that?" Zukasu sighed, shaking his head, "Well, if you want to duel, then come on; let's get started."

"You must be in a hurry to lose," Stella said with a smirk before she turned to face Euphemia and then shot her a rather evil grin, "And don't think that you're off the hook, Floozy. I suggest that you pay close attention to this duel because it'll be a preview of what I'm gonna do to you once I've dealt with the Mecha-freak here."

"The duel hasn't even started yet and already you believe that you've already won," Euphemia said with a sigh as she shook her head, "I guess you haven't really learned anything from your defeat. How very sad."

Yumi dove behind Euphemia as Stella glared furiously at her.

"There you go again, looking at me like I'm some insignificant insect," she growled hatefully as she glared murderously at the pinkette, "I'm gonna make you suffer for that."

"Euphie, don't make her even madder than she already is," Yumi pleaded, fearing for Euphemia's safety as she knew that Stella had every intention of making good on her threat.

"She's doing it to herself," Euphemia told her, "I'm just trying to point out her mistakes and what she's doing wrong. It's not my fault that she refuses to listen."

Stella opened her mouth to reply, but then shook her head and turned back to face Zukasu, he had already strapped his duel disk onto his left arm.

"Never mind, I'll just concentrate on taking back what should have been mine," she said as she drew five cards and Zukasu did the same and they both stood facing one another and activated their duel disks.

"GAME ON!" they both shouted in unison.

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

"Ladies first," Zukasu said with a nod towards Stella; indicating that he was letting her have the first turn.

"My, how kind of you," Stella said in a mockingly sweet sarcastic tone.

She then drew her sixth card and looked over her hand, which consisted of Tonberry, Barrier, Revive, Tonberry's Long Knife, Cactaur Growth and Tonberry Call, which she had just drawn.

She then reached for her Tonberry (1200/1200) card and placed it on a monster space on her duel disk, causing it to appear on the field, walking out from its card just as it had done during the duel with Euphemia.

"I summon my Tonberry in attack mode," Stella said as she then reached for her Tonberry Call card and placed it a spell/trap slot and the facedown card appeared on the field behind the Tonberry.

"And I lay one card facedown and since I can't do anything else, I end my turn and let you take the spotlight; at least for now."

* * *

><p>"A monster and a facedown, isn't there anything else to do other than to just summon one monster and place an obvious trap card?" Yumi said as she observed Stella's first turn, "The first turn of the duel always seems to be the shortest, though I'm surprised that she started off with the monster that was the final monster in her duel with you, Euphie."<p>

"Well, the first turn of the duel has no battle phase," Euphemia pointed out as she observed the situation, "I guess it's to prevent the one who starts the duel off from gaining an unfair lead as the opponent would be unable to defend himself as he had yet to have his first turn."

"Though some cards can bypass that," Yumi said bitterly as she remembered Stella's Cactaur and how its effect allowed it to deal damage even on the first turn of the duel, "They should alter the rules so that any monsters that has an effect that can deal damage should be prohibited from using them if they're summoned on the first turn as well."

"Yes, effects and battle phases fall under different categories, don't they?" Euphemia said, acknowledging Yumi's objections over the issue, "Anyway, let's just see how Zukasu handles it."

Yumi just nodded.

* * *

><p>Zukasu looked over his hand as he drew his sixth card and saw that he had Knightmare Reinforcements, Assault Rifle, Chaos Mine, Knightmare Frame: Glasgow, Yggdrasil Drive Explosion and Knightmare Frame: Royal Gloucester, which he just drew.<p>

He then reached for his Knightmare Frame: Glasgow (1400/1000) card and placed it on the middle monster space of his duel disk.

"First, I summon my Knightmare Frame: Glasgow to the field in attack mode," he announced as what looked like some sort of grey humanoid robot appeared on the field.

The robot looked about human-sized, though it was clearly a downsized mecha like the kind from a Japanese mecha-anime. It had wheels situated behind its feet and a square protrusion sticking out from its chest with two brown prong like devices; one at either side of the protrusion with two points each. The downsized mecha also appeared to be carrying a backpack and its head was shaped a bit like a missile with a rounded domed front and four red orbs that were supposed to represent eyes.

* * *

><p>"Wow, I suppose that's why Stella keeps calling him, Mecha-freak," Yumi said in amazement as she stared at the downsized mecha, "But wheels…? Come on, it seems like mecha on roller blades."<p>

However, Euphemia did not answer as she stared at the monster that had just been summoned with widened eyes as she felt a sense of familiarity strike her when she studied the mecha monster. It was indeed strange as she felt as if she knew that the Knightmare Frame monster had been called a Glasgow beforehand. Even if Zukasu had not announced its name before he had summoned it, she just knew that she would have been able name it without him telling her.

"Wow, that's weird," she said as she continued to stare at the mecha monster as she tried to remember just where she knew it from.

"What's weird?" Yumi asked curiously as she turned to face her friend and noticed the look on her face; the same sort of look that she had when she first laid eyes on Zukasu and called him, Suzaku.

"Huh… oh nothing really," Euphemia said as she waved it off, shaking her head, "I just got a sense of déjà vu when I saw Zukasu's monster, that's all. I'm a fan of Japanese mecha-anime."

Yumi just nodded as she turned back to concentrate on watching the duel, though she knew that Euphemia was lying to her, but for the moment she decided to just put it to the back of her mind and watch the duel and hope that Zukasu would emerge victorious over his sadistically cruel opponent.

* * *

><p>"Next, I equip my Glasgow with the spell card, Chaos Mine," Zukasu went on as he placed his Chaos Mine card into a spelltrap slot and the card appeared on the field displaying the image of a black cylinder object and then suddenly, the object flew out of the card and into the Glasgow's right hand, "With this card equipped to any level four or below monster with Knightmare Frame in its name, the monster it's equipped to gets to destroy all monsters on my opponent's side of the field and that's just an effect."

The Glasgow then threw the Chaos Mine at the Tonberry and once it was in a horizontal position, the middle part of the mine blew off and the two ends extended and then revealing silver cylinders between then and then the cylinders started to rotate, firing what could only be described as shrapnel from the spaces between them at the Tonberry monster.

"You activated my trap," Stella said with a smirk as she pushed the facedown activation button on her duel disk, causing her facedown card to rise up, revealing a Tonberry with its hand at the side of its mouth and small white curved lines shooting out as if it were shouting and the Tonberry on the field mimicked the Tonberry portrayed in the image and let out a strange noise that could not be described (think the noise they make in Final Fantasy VIII when they appear in battle) before the shrapnel from the Chaos Mine hit it, causing it to shatter, "With my Tonberry Call in play, whenever a Tonberry leaves the field, I can summon another Tonberry from either my deck or my hand to take its place."

She then took out her deck from its slot and selected another Tonberry (1200/1200) card and placed it in the same monster slot that she had placed her first Tonberry. However, Suzaku's eyes widened as he noticed the attack points of the new Tonberry (1800/1200) had increased by six hundred.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that in addition to the two special abilities it demonstrated in my duel with the Floozy, I now have the opportunity to demonstrate its final effect. For each of its fellow Tonberries in the graveyard, a Tonberry gains six hundred extra attack points for each one."

"I see," Zukasu groaned, clearly not happy at this piece of news, "However since it's an unlimited edition monster, you can only have three copies of that monster in your deck, the maximum number of attack points one of those monsters can gain is limited to twelve hundred and it's still my turn and I've still one card left to play."

"Fine, just play it already," Stella said with a yawn as she clearly did not take Zukasu seriously, "Not that it'll do you much good."

"Okay, I now equip my Glasgow with the spell card, Assault Rifle," Suzaku announced as he removed his Chaos Mine card and discarded it into the graveyard before placing his Assault Rifle card into the same spell/trap slot that had previous been occupied by Chaos Mine.

The card appeared on the field, displaying the image of a machinegun rifle and like the Chaos Mine card, the rifle flew out of the card and into the waiting hands of the Glasgow (1900/1000).

"Whenever Assault Rifle is in the hands of a level six or lower monster with Knightmare Frame in its name, that monster gains five hundred extra attack points," Zukasu said as he stared down Stella's Tonberry monster, "Now, Glasgow, attack her Tonberry with Machinegun Barrage."

The Glasgow aimed the rifle at the Tonberry and then fired it at the monster, causing it to violently shake as if doing a little dance as it was riddled with bullets before it shattered, causing Stella to wince, though she was not bothered by this.

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Stella**: 3900

"I should mention that my Tonberry Call trap card remains in play until all three Tonberries have been summoned to the field," Stella said with a smirk as she motioned to her left and Zukasu noticed that Tonberry Call's life-sized holographic version of the card was still present on the field as Stella took her deck out and fished for her third Tonberry (1200/1200) card and summoned it to the field, by placing it in the same monster space as its comrades.

The third Tonberry (2400/1200) appeared on the field and Zukasu groaned, knowing that it now had more than enough attack points to take out his Glasgow.

"I place one card facedown and end my turn," Zukasu said as he placed his Yggdrasil Drive Explosion card into a spell/trap slot.

* * *

><p>"Damn, it's not looking too good," Yumi said as she started to worry for Zukasu's safety, "That Tonberry monster's just too powerful."<p>

However, Euphemia just was not listening. When she had seen the Chaos Mine card being played, she could not help but get a flash of herself running towards a group of six large mechas that looked similar to the one Zukasu had played, only they were purple with red markings painted on their shoulders and the fronts of their head with one that was clearly crippled and another one along with a white and golden mecha that looked more advanced than the other six standing in front of the crippled mecha with the other four standing in opposition and one of the four opposing mechas had throwing a larger version of the Chaos Mine in her direction, though it was clear that it had been aiming for the white and golden mecha, but the white and golden mecha rushed to over to her just as the shrapnel had been released and had somehow managed to generate a solid green transparent energy shield, protecting her.

"Hey, Earth to Euphie, are you in there?" Yumi's voice came, bringing her back to reality and the first thing she noticed was Yumi's hand waving in front of her face, though for the life of her, she could not remember just what she had experienced.

She knew that she had had a flashback of some kind, but she just did not remember what it was about. One minute, it was there and the next, it was gone, leaving her greatly confused.

"What, just what was I doing just now?" she said, looking at Yumi in confusion and Yumi could tell that Euphemia was genuinely confused just as she had been when she had addressed Zukasu as Suzaku.

In fact, thinking back on it, she remembered on the day of their arrival, the strange dream that Euphemia seemed to get so worked up over, her strange attitude whenever the idea of her being a princess was mentioned, the strange forgetfulness in regards to Zukasu and now this with Zukasu's monsters. It all seemed strange since Euphemia herself clearly had not a clue as to what was going on. Anyway, shaking her head Yumi decided to look into it later.

"Never mind, let's just watch the duel," she said reassuringly as she placed a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder and Euphemia nodded as she flashed Yumi a brief smile before turning her attention back to the duel.

* * *

><p>Back with the duel, Stella only smirked as her Tonberry Call card shattered on the field as she removed it from the spelltrap slot and discarded it the graveyard. She then drew a card, which turned out to be Cactaur and looking at the cards in her hand and noticing her Cactaur Growth card and her Tonberry's Long Knife and then looking at the Tonberry on the field, she smirked as she realised that she could use all those cards to deal a massive amount of damage to Zukasu.

"Okay, Mecha-freak, playtime's over," she said as she took her Cactaur (600/900) card and placed in in the monster space to the left of the one that the Tonberry occupied and the small cactus like creature appeared on the field, "And I think I'll activate his One Thousand Needles ability, which lets shaves off one thousand of your life points."

The Cactaur then bent over and unleashed a barrage of quill-like needles at Zukasu, who brought his arms up in front of his face in an X formation.

**Zukasu**: 3000 – **Stella**: 3900

"But that's not all, I next play the spell card, Cactaur Growth," the cruel girl went on as she showed Zukasu a card with the image of three Cactaurs going from left to right and each Cactaur was bigger than the last and above the Cactaurs over the space in between them were red arrows pointing in the direction of the next Cactaur and the last Cactaur also had a stereotypical cartoonish like moustache between the holes that represented its eyes and mouth.

Stella placed it in the spell/trap slot behind the monster space that the Cactaur occupied and the card appeared on the field behind the Cactaur and when it started to glow, the Cactaur started to glow along with it and appeared to transform into a bright yellow energy silhouette of itself.

"Whenever Cactaur's out on the field and I play this spell card, he grows up to become Jumbo Cactaur," Stella informed him as she took a card out from her deck and placed it in the same monster space as the Cactaur card after she removed it and discarded it to the graveyard.

On the field, the energy silhouette of the Cactaur appeared to get bigger and bigger until it was about twice the size of a normal average-sized human and then the energy dispersed, leaving behind a huge Cactaur that looked like a monster-sized version of the one that had just been on the field only it had the same moustache as the last Cactaur depicted on the Cactaur Growth card.

"Say hello, Jumbo Cactaur," Stella said, beaming with pride as she turned to look over at Euphemia, "And you really ought to pay attention to this, Floozy because you're next."

She then turned back to face Zukasu, either too caught up in her pride to notice or simply not caring that Euphemia was off in her own little world. She then looked up at her Jumbo Cactaur (2600/2900) and then looked at Zukasu with a smirk.

"And next, I'll activate his special ability," Stella said as the giant Cactaur mimicked the regular Cactaur's stance in pointing the three quills at the top of its head at Zukasu, "But fortunately for you, unlike its regular cousin, it only decreases your life points by half."

"Oh joy," Zukasu said in a sarcastically excited tone as he braced himself for the giant Cactaur's quill-assault, which came and he could not help but wince at the phantom pain that came with each quill that "penetrated" his body.

"Good thing this isn't real; otherwise there's a good chance I'd be dead," he thought, commenting on how real the attack seemed.

**Zukasu**: 1500 – **Stella**: 3900

"You're fortunate that by activating this ability, my Jumbo Cactaur is prohibited from attacking on the same turn," Stella went on boasting, with a hint of disappointment in her tone, "But that doesn't matter because my Tonberry will make up for it; especially after I equip him with this."

She then showed Zukasu her Tonberry's Long Knife card, which depicted an image of a chef's knife, only this knife was very long and once Zukasu had taken the time to study it, she placed it in a spell/trap slot and it appeared on the field and like the Chaos Mine and the Assault Rifle, the knife flew out of the card; only this time, it went into the Tonberry's knife hand as the Tonberry (3200/1200) placed its original knife inside its robe.

"Whenever a Tonberry's equip with this weapon, it gains eight hundred extra attack points," Stella went on with cruel excitement, "And so now, I'll have him attack that overrated mecha monstrosity over there."

She pointed to Zukasu's Glasgow and the Tonberry very slowly walked over to it and raised its oversized knife.

"I activate the trap, Yggdrasil Drive Explosion," Zukasu said as he pushed the facedown activation button on his duel disk and his facedown rose up, displaying and image of a Knightmare Frame exploding with the explosion appearing to have started in its stomach area, "Whenever a monster with Knightmare Fame in its name is attacked and I activate this, you receive the same amount of damage as I did when my monster's destroyed."

Stella's eyes widened in shock at hearing this, knowing that it was too late to call of her attack as her Tonberry brought its long knife down on Zukasu's Glasgow, cutting it down the middle, but then it suddenly exploded and engulfed the Tonberry.

"And it also destroys the attacking monster as well," Zukasu added with a smirk.

**Zukasu**: 200 – **Stella**: 2600

"And not only that, but whenever my Glasgow is destroyed in battle, I can summon a level-four or lower Knightmare Frame monster from my deck or hand so long as its attack points are lower than nineteen hundred," Zukasu went on as he took his deck out of its slot and then took a card out from it and slapped it onto the monster space that had been occupied by his Glasgow and a similar, yet different human-sized mecha appeared on the field.

This one looked similar to his Glasgow, only it was mostly purple and had a slightly different appearance from the Glasgow. Also, the "backpack" didn't appear as large as the "backpack" at the back of the Glasgow

"My Knightmare Frame: Sutherland," Zukasu announced, causing Stella to grumble furiously as she glared at the Sutherland (1600/1200).

* * *

><p>On the side-lines, Yumi looked worried as she stared at Zukasu's life points displayed on his duel disk.<p>

"Okay two hundred life points left," she said in a near-panic, "This isn't good. Zukasu's gotta step up his game if he wants to win."

However, Euphemia had zoned-out again as she stared at the new Knightmare Frame monster on the field as she experienced the same flashback she had experienced before as she knew that Zukasu's new Knightmare Frame was the same as the ones in her flashback; albeit without the red markings and like the Glasgow, she had known before Zukasu had announced its name that it was called a Sutherland. However, for the life of her, she just did not know why she knew this and like before; just as soon as the flashback came, it had vanished and she just could not remember what it was about. It both confused and frightened her and she found herself shaking her head.

"Hey, Euphie, what's with you lately?" Yumi asked in concern as she noticed her friend's strange behaviour.

"Huh, what…?" Euphemia said as she was brought back to reality, "Was I doing something again?"

"Uh huh," Yumi said with a nod, "You were shaking your head and if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were scared."

"I'm sorry, Yumi," Euphemia sighed apologetically, "It's just for some reason, Zukasu's Knightmare Frame monsters look so familiar to me. I don't know why, but I seem to know their names even before he calls them out and I think I'm experiencing flashbacks; but the thing is, I just don't remember what they're about. One second, they're there and the next; they're gone and I just can't seem to remember them."

Yumi looked at Euphemia as she absorbed this information, clearly contemplating something, but at length, she just sighed. She knew that it was pointless asking Euphemia since she was just as clueless as she was about what was going on with her. However, Yumi knew that there was definitely something strange going on with Euphemia and she wanted to be there for her friend; to help her should she need it. After all, Euphemia was the first real friend she had had in a long time and she did not like the idea of losing her.

"I suppose it's pointless looking into it at the moment, so I think we best continue to watch the duel and hope that Zukasu can find a way out of this," she said at length and Euphemia just nodded.

* * *

><p>Back with Zukasu and Stella, when the dust settled from the Glasgow's explosion, Zukasu's eyes widened when he saw that the Tonberry (24001200) was still there as it slowly sauntered back over to its position on the field.

"Surprised?" Stella taunted with a cruel smirk, "Well allow me to enlighten you, Mecha-freak, for you see; whenever Tonberry is the target of an attack or a card effect that can remove him from the field, by sacrificing my long knife, he remains on the field. Of course, he loses the attack points that came with the long knife, but I'm not that concerned."

Zukasu's eyes narrowed as he glared at the teal-haired girl as he grudgingly accepted her explanation.

"Anyway, it's my move," he said as he drew a card and looked at it to see that it was Knightmare Frame: Gloucester and realising that he had Knightmare Frame: Royal Gloucester in his hand, he nodded to himself, "Since my Sutherland was a special summon, I summon my Knightmare Frame: Gloucester to the field in attack mode."

He then reached for his Knightmare Frame: Gloucester (1800/1400) and then placed it on the monster space to the right of the monster space that the Sutherland occupied and a greyish purple mecha appeared on the field next to the Sutherland. This Knightmare Frame differed greatly from the Glasgow and the Sutherland as its head was more rounded like a human's instead of the missile like shape and it also had a black cape attached to its back.

"Oh and if you haven't already noticed, my Assault Rifle is still on the field," Zukasu said as he nudged his head to the area towards the front of the Sutherland and Stella looked on in shock, "Unlike most equip spells that are destroyed along with the monster its equipped to, this equip spell remains on the field and can be claimed by another Knightmare Frame monster."

As if to emphasise his point, the Sutherland (2100/1200) picked up the Assault Rifle, but Stella shook her head.

"It makes no difference because both my monsters are still stronger than your scrapheap of a monster," she boasted, as if sure that Zukasu was unable to find a way out of this predicament.

"But I'm not done yet," Zukasu said with a smirk, "Because whenever my Gloucester's summoned to the field, I can draw one card."

He then drew from his deck and smirked as the card he had just drawn was Jousting Lance and knew that that would come in handy later.

"And I should mention that whenever my Gloucester's on the field, I can sacrifice it to summon my Knightmare Frame: Royal Gloucester from my hand," he continued as he removed the Gloucester card from its space and replaced it with the new Gloucester (2200/1800).

On the field, the Gloucester disappeared and a new pink Gloucester with golden markings appeared on the field. It looked similar to the Gloucester that had just been on the field, only underneath its head was what looked like the visor of a knight's helmet with two wing like antenna; one protruding from each side pointing upwards at a diagonal angle. It also had a white cape attached to its back and at the front over its crotch area was ornamental waist armour with a golden symbol that looked as if it would be suited for a family's crest.

"And since it's a Gloucester, it also has the effect of the regular Gloucester," Zukasu went on as he drew another card from his deck, which was Knightmare Frame: Lancelot.

He knew that he could probably win with this card, but unfortunately, since he had already wasted his normal summon on his regular Gloucester, he could not sacrifice the two Knightmare Frames on the field to summon it.

"And also, for each Gloucester in the graveyard, Royal Gloucester get three hundred extra attack points," he concluded as he pointed to the Royal Gloucester (2500/1800), "But that's not all, I now equip my Royal Gloucester was the spell card, Jousting Lance, giving it seven hundred more attack points."

He placed his Jousting Lance card into a spell/trap slot and the card appeared on the field with the image of a golden lance shaped like a cone with the handle attached to the centre of the flat circle end and then the lance flew out of the card and into the hand of the Gloucester (3200/1800)

"Thirty-two hundred attack points!" Stella said in alarm as her eyes widened.

* * *

><p>"Wow, what a comeback," Yumi said is astonishment as she saw Zukasu's turn, he could win this turn."<p>

However, once again, Euphemia was not listening as she just looked at Zukasu's latest monster; feeling even more of a déjà vu feeling from this monster more than any of the other Knightmare Frame monsters.

"Cornelia," she quietly gasped, "That's Cornelia's machine."

As she said this, the image of a woman with dark purplish pink hair and purplish blue eyes dressed in red with white boots and white gloves and a stern "Don't mess with me" look on her face came to mind, but like her flashbacks, the image immediately vanished and she found herself unable to remember what it was, though she knew that a woman had come into her mind and it just downright confused her. Why would she be thinking of a woman now and even more confusing, why was she suddenly associating this woman with the strange dream she had had while she had been on the Chinook that had transported her and the other students to Duel Academy on the day they had arrived. Was it possible that the woman she had been thinking about and the woman from her dream were the same person?

"Seriously, Euphie, you are scaring me," she heard Yumi's voice saying as she shook her head, "Just who on Earth is Cornelia?"

"Cornelia… did I say that name, was that her name?" Euphemia said in a confused tone, though from the sound of it, it was clear that she was asking herself and not Yumi, "That name does sound familiar, like Suzaku, but I just don't know why."

"Excuse me?" Yumi said in confusion, unable to tell what Euphemia was meaning.

"Sorry, Yumi, but when Zukasu's Royal Gloucester appeared, it seemed more familiar to me than any of the others," Euphemia confessed, sounding a bit scared herself, "And though I don't know why, a woman suddenly came into my mind, though I can't remember what she looks like and for some reason, I think she's the same woman from my dream I had on the day we arrived."

Yumi nodded in acceptance. She did indeed remember that dream and convinced Euphemia to shrug it off, but Euphemia seemed a bit apprehensive about doing so, though at the time, she had just shrugged it off as Euphemia had managed to dismiss the dream.

"Okay, so you dreamt that you had fallen out with and had had an argument with some woman called Cornelia," she said, remembering that Euphemia did know that much and after hearing Euphemia mention the name, Cornelia, she guessed that that was the woman's name, "I think you may be suffering from amnesia, though why you'd think this Cornelia woman has anything to do with Zukasu's monster is beyond me."

"It's beyond me as well," Euphemia said, wincing at Yumi's amnesia diagnosis as she knew that she did indeed suffer from amnesia as she had no memories prior to waking up in Domino and meeting Jaden.

Could those images and flashbacks possibly be those memories trying to surface? If so, then why did Zukasu and his deck of Knightmare Frames seem to be causing it? Why did Zukasu seem to be so intertwined with the name, Suzaku? Knowing that she would not get any of those answers at the moment, she just shook her head and went back to watching the duel.

* * *

><p>"Now, Royal Gloucester, make shish-kebab of that oversized cactus," Zukasu ordered from back on the field as he pointed at the Jumbo Cactaur, deciding to get rid of it first seeing as how it was the greatest threat.<p>

The Royal Gloucester sped towards the Jumbo Cactaur and impaled it with its lance, causing it to shatter and Stella's eyes widened in shock and then her face twisted in fury as she clearly had not expected that.

**Zukasu**: 200 – **Stella**: 2000

"No way, I won't lose to you like I did that disgusting pink-haired slut," Stella growled furiously, "I'll take what's mine one way or another. I defeat you, just like I defeated that little upstart, Gideon."

"Gideon!" Zukasu exclaimed, indicating that he knew who Stella was talking about and then his eyes narrowed as a realisation suddenly hit him, "I see, so you're the reason he never turned up for the Entrance Exam."

"That's right," Stella stated in a proud tone; feeling proud of her accomplishment, "The night before the Entrance Exams, I tracked him down and dealt with him."

* * *

><p>"Gideon, who's that?" Yumi asked curiously from on the side-lines.<p>

"If I had to guess, I'd say that he was the other boy who outranked Stella at the prep school," Euphemia replied, indicating that she had been listening and had not lost herself in her thoughts.

"I see, but if what Stella says is true then that means…!" Yumi said in alarm as she guessed what Stella had done to him.

Euphemia just nodded silently, feeling a wave of sympathy for this Gideon character.

* * *

><p>"No one is better than me," Stella went on, either not noticing or choosing to ignore Euphemia and Yumi from the side-lines, "I am the best. I am unbeatable and anyone who dares prove me wrong, I'll ruin their lives beyond repair. I'll make them regret the day they were born."<p>

Zukasu grimaced as he recalled Gideon. Like Euphemia had said, Gideon Rhymes had been the other boy who had outdone Stella at the prep school. He had come in second just behind Zukasu and he and Zukasu had been close friends. Gideon had hailed from Melbourne, Australia and had been heavily influenced by Jim "Crocodile" Cook, the Duel Monsters Champion of South Academy, who was also Australian. Jim Cook had also paid a brief visit here to Duel Academy, though he ended up caught up in whatever incident had occurred during the first half of the previous year and once that was resolved, he and the other overseas champions; minus Adrian Gecko, the Duel Monsters Champion from East Academy, who was still missing even to this day returned to their respective academies. Gideon had high hopes of following in Jim's footstep and Zukasu remembered the many friendly duels they both had had during their time at the prep school, though Zukasu would always win, but Zukasu was the only student he could not beat, so it was a massive shock to learn that Stella had beaten him and like with all her opponents; ruined his duelling career.

"That's right," Stella said as she trembled with sadistic excitement as she recalled how she had beaten Gideon, "I ruined him just like I'm gonna ruin you."

She then turned to face Euphemia.

"And you as well, Floozy," she went on before turning her attention back to Zukasu, "And you want to know something? I liked every second of it and it felt good crushing his hopes and dreams under my heel."

"You aren't human, you know that?" Zukasu said in furious disgust at Stella's glee over how she had ruined his best friend.

Stella started to chuckle and slowly her chuckling started to escalate until eventually, she broke into full-blown psychotic laughter, causing Yumi to tremble and dive behind Euphemia.

"I'm not human," she said in an almost proud tone as her laughter died down, though she still chuckled, "I'm not human. How I wish that was true. However, the Floozy over there happens to disagree with you. According to her, I'm "only human"."

* * *

><p>"What I meant was that you're no different from everyone else as far as having limitations go," Euphemia replied as she glared at Stella, finding her insane attitude more than she could stomach, "You're just a human being like everyone else, but what Zukasu meant when he said that you weren't human was that your personality isn't like that of a normal person."<p>

* * *

><p>"Well, excuse me, but I'd rather be strong," Stella said, feeling infuriated at Euphemia's attitude before turning her attention back to Zukasu, "Now, I believe this duel is still on and now I'll explain the effect of my Jumbo Cactaur. Whenever he's destroyed, I can revive the Cactaur I used to summon him."<p>

Her Cactaur card then came out of the graveyard slot and into her waiting hand and she took it and placed it in the Jumbo Cactaur's monster space, though she had summoned him in attack mode for some reason.

"Oh well, touch luck," she boasted.

"Whenever a Knightmare Frame monster equipped with Jousting Lance attacks, by sacrificing the lance, it can attack again," Zukasu said with a groan as he removed the Jousting Lance card from its slot and discarded it to the graveyard, causing the lance in the Gloucester's (2500/1800) hand to shatter, decreasing its attack points, "Now then, attack her Tonberry and, Sutherland; rid the field of that annoying cactus."

The Royal Gloucester then charged towards the Tonberry and skewered it in the same manner as it had skewered the Jumbo Cactaur, causing it to shatter.

"Not a problem," Stella boasted as she knew the damage she had sustained was not that much.

**Zukasu**: 200 – **Stella**: 1900

Once the Tonberry was destroyed the Sutherland aimed its rifle at the Cactaur and fired it, causing the cactus like creature to fall over on its side and shatter.

**Zukasu**: 200 – **Stella**: 400

"I believe that that ends my turn," Zukasu said with a furious glare in Stella's direction as he recalled what she had said about how she had "dealt" with Gideon, "Your move."

* * *

><p>"Wow, unbelievable," Yumi said as she noticed that both Zukasu and Stella's life points were both dangerously low from the side-lines, "At this point, this duel could go either way."<p>

Euphemia nodded as she managed to push her familiarity with the Knightmare Frames to the back of her mind.

"Yeah, but it's Stella's turn and with a slight lead and who knows what she's gonna draw, I'll say that we should cross our fingers and hope that Zukasu can find a way out of this mess," Euphemia said as she glanced over at Zukasu worryingly; worried that he was going to lose, but then shook her head and faced Yumi with a curious look on her face, "Just what was Stella planning anyway? I get that she wrote a fake love letter to lure me out so she could duel me, but just what was se hoping to accomplish?"

"She was planning on having you expelled after she had beaten you," Yumi replied with a sigh, feeling rather worried for Euphemia as she remembered what Stella had told her, "You know that it's against campus rules to wonder out of the dorms after curfew as well as trespass in the other dorms, right?"

"Oh, I get it," Euphemia said with an understanding nod, "She probably arranged for me to get caught in the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm, am I right?"

"Uh huh," Yumi said with a nod and trembled as she remembered the next part, "And she also arranged to have a homeless man come here and frame him for raping you in order to explain your crushed psychological state."

"I see," Euphemia said, shaking her head with a hard look on her face, "And just how does she intend to get away with that? I could easily clear everything up and given my state; if Stella's plan had worked, how would she know that they would expel me?"

"Her uncle," Yumi replied with a groan, "She said she'd get onto her uncle if she had to."

Euphemia just nodded; knowing that the Harrington Family would undoubtedly pull strings for their heiress to ensure that she got her way. However, she could not help but feel sorry for the poor man that Stella had decided to use as a scapegoat to explain her broken state.

"Let's just watch the duel," she said with a nod.

* * *

><p>"My turn," Stella said as she drew a card, which turned out to be Malboro and then nodded to herself before taking the Revive card from her hand, which displayed the image of a fallen swordsman being sprinkled with reddish orange stars and a small angel with a halo hovered overhead sprinkling the stars, "First I play the spell card, Revive, which allows me to revive a monster from my graveyard, but unfortunately the revived monster loses seventy-five percent of its attack points."<p>

She then placed the card in a spell/trap slot and the angel on the card appeared on the field and sprinkled the same star like substance on the field in the exact same spot that the Tonberry had occupied and the Tonberry (2400/1200) rose out of the ground as Stella took the card from the graveyard slot and placed it on the same monster space it had occupied before.

"As I mentioned before, it loses three quarters of its attack points," Stella said, pointing at the Tonberry (600/1200), but then shrugged it off, "But that doesn't matter because I now sacrifice my Tonberry to summon, Malboro."

She then removed the Tonberry card and discarded it into the graveyard, causing the Tonberry on the field to vanish and then she placed Malboro (2200/1900) card on the same monster space and a big green ugly plant like monster appeared on the field. It had tentacles at its rounded bottom and it moved its mouth up and down, showing off its sharp teeth and Zukasu grimaced as he realised that this creature had no lips since he could also see its crimson red gums and surrounding its mouth; both at the top and bottom were small tube like appendixes with black orbs at their ends and Zukasu realised that these were the creature's eyes. It looked a bit like some kind of mutant broccoli that had come to life through some cross genetic experiment in which animal cells had been spliced with plant cells.

"And now, I'll activate my Malboro's Bad Breath ability," Stella said as she extended her arm towards the Malboro and spread out her fingers and in response, the Malboro lurched its head backwards and then flung it forward, shooting a black mist out of its mouth that totally engulfed Zukasu's two Knightmare Frames.

* * *

><p>"Marlboro, as in the cigarette brand?" Yumi asked in confusion, "What's some sort of mutant plant got to do with cigarettes?"<p>

"No, the monster's name is Malboro, not Marlboro," Euphemia said, shaking her head, "Though I think the name was based off the cigarette brand and it probably has something to do with its Bad Breath effect."

"Oh, I see," Yumi said with a nod, though she was still at a loss as to explain why a plant like monster was named after a cigarette brand.

* * *

><p>Back with the duel, when the black mist dissipated from the field, Zukasu's two Knightmare Frames dropped into kneeling positions with their arms wrapped over their stomach areas and started to turn brown, as if rusting. Had they been human like monsters, Zukasu would have been sure that they would have been suffering from massive stomach aches. However, Stella's laughter soon caught his attention.<p>

"Are you wondering what's happing to your pieces of junk?" she said in a tauntingly curious tone, "Well, let me explain. You see, when my Malboro's special ability activates, my opponent's monsters become absolutely useless. You can't change their battle positions and you can't attack with them either; in fact, the only thing you can do with them is sacrifice them, but I doubt you have a monster in your deck that's capable of defeating it and even if you did, which I sincerely doubt, the chances of you drawing it are slim. However, the good news is that my Malboro still can't attack your Royal Gloucester since it currently has more attack points than my Malboro, but your Sutherland's another story. Now, Malboro; sent that bucket of bolts to the scrapyard."

The Malboro then repeated its previous movements when it launched its Bad Breath, but this time, it shot out a huge globule of green saliva at the Sutherland and when the globule hit, the Sutherland started to dissolve in the areas that he globule made contact with; indicating that the saliva was a type of acid, but then the Sutherland shattered, causing Zukasu to wince.

**Zukasu**: 100 – **Stella**: 400

"Oh and I should mention that after Malboro destroys a monster affected by its Bad Breath, you lose half your life points in addition," Stella added boastfully, "But don't feel bad. This ability can't drop your life points to zero."

Zukasu winced as the Malboro then hurled another globule of its acid saliva at him directly from its mouth and when it hit him, he felt as if someone had thrown a really hard rock at him and he placed his free hand over his chest as he dropped to one knee.

**Zukasu**: 50 – **Stella**: 400

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Stella boasted sadistically with a rather cruel smile on her face, "But now, you know your place in life, which is beneath me."

"You're full of yourself," Zukasu said as he got up, glaring at Stella, "It's sad."

"What?" Stella said, feeling a wave of fury wash over her at Zukasu's tone as she had clearly expected him to start to break, but he didn't.

"I said that it's sad that you live in your own little world," Zukasu said bravely, showing that he was not afraid of her, "Anyway, like my Glasgow, when my Sutherland's destroyed, I can take a level-four or lower Knightmare Frame monster from my deck or hand and summon it to the field and I choose another Sutherland."

He then took his deck out from its slot and searched for another Sutherland (1600/1200) and summoned it to the field by placing it on the same monster space that the previous Sutherland and the new Sutherland (2100/1200) claimed the fallen Assault Rifle since it was not affected by the Malboro's Bad Breath.

"I end my turn," Stella growled furiously.

"And I'll start mine," Zukasu said as he drew from his deck and the card he drew was Knightmare Shield, but seeing how he already had the card that would win the duel in his hand already, he didn't see the need to use it, "Okay, since my new Sutherland came to the field during your turn, it counts as a special summon, so now, I'll sacrifice both my Royal Gloucester and my Sutherland to bring out my Knightmare Frame: Lancelot and this one's my favourite."

He then removed his Royal Gloucester and his Sutherland from their monster slots, causing them to vanish on the field and discarded the card to the graveyard and then reached for his Knightmare Frame: Lancelot (2900/2800) and placed it on the middle monster space and the mecha that appeared on the field looked way more advanced than any of the others. It was white and gold with green eyes at the front of the head with a golden facemask that covered the area beneath the eyes where the nose and mouth should be and seemed to have arm guards attached to its forearms and skin guards attached at the front of its lower legs. It also seemed her be carrying a backpack and at the front of its chest was a red mark shaped a bit like a stereotypical coffin being seen from above.

"Twenty-nine hundred attack points!" Stella said in alarm as she realised that that was more than enough to not only take out her Malboro, but also the rest of her life points, "No way, not again! I won't lose to you, Mecha-freak!"

"Tough luck, you just lost," Zukasu stated simply in response, "Lancelot, end this with Diving Spin Kick."

The Lancelot just nodded and then jumped into the air, flying towards the Malboro and performed the same spin kick that Zukasu had performed earlier and slammed into the Malboro, causing it to shatter.

"Game, set and match!" Zukasu said as he extended his fist out towards Stella after saying the first word and the brought his thumb out at the side as he said the second word and then pointed his thumb downwards towards the ground and thrust it down as he said the last two, "That was for Gideon."

**Zukasu (winner)**: 50 – **Stella**: 0

* * *

><p>I don't believe it, Zukasu won," Yumi said excitedly as she jumped up in celebration.<p>

However, Euphemia just stared at the Lancelot as the holograms disappeared and continued to stare at where the Lancelot had been as the same flashback from before entered her head and she knew that the Lancelot was the mecha had had protected her from the Chaos Mine that she had foolishly run in the path of. Honestly, she did not know what on Earth had been going on, but from the looks of it, it seemed that a group of Sutherlands had gotten into a skirmish amongst themselves and the Lancelot had been playing peacemaker and she had somehow gotten caught up in it as she had run out in an attempt to stop the fighting. However, like before, those thoughts immediately left her mind as quickly as they came and Euphemia found herself confused once again.

"Suzaku, Suzaku piloted that machine," she suddenly blurted out, catching Yumi's attention after she heard her friend mention the name, Suzaku again.

"Huh, what, piloted... you mean that…" she started to say, but then stopped herself when she realised that Euphemia would not remember what she had said, "Oh boy, this is just confusing."

"What's confusing?" Euphemia said as she shook her head, trying to shake off the uneasiness and familiarity that she was feeling.

"You mentioned the name, Suzaku again," Yumi said honestly, "And you said that he piloted that Lancelot mecha."

"Huh, did I?" Euphemia said in confusion as she was clearly asking herself that question rather than Yumi.

"Never mind that, I'm sure in time, it'll come to you," Yumi said with a smile as she tried to cheer her friend up, "Just leave it alone for now."

"Yeah," Euphemia said with a somewhat reluctant nod, "I suppose you're right. No use wracking my brain over something that probably won't come to me the more I think of it."

Yumi nodded as she decided to drop the subject for now and Euphemia went along with it and unbeknownst to them both, Euphemia subconsciously found herself glad that she was trying to veer away from that particular area as she had a strange feeling that she did not want to know why the Knightmare Frames and Zukasu seemed so familiar to her, along with this Cornelia woman as she had this strange frightening feeling that knowing the answer would prove ultimately devastating for her as she could not help but think that she had done something horrible.

* * *

><p>Back with Zukasu and Stella, Stella just stared in shock as Zukasu deactivated his duel disk and glared at her.<p>

"You lose, Stella," he said simply.

That seemed to bring Stella out of her shock as she shook her head and glared at the Japanese boy.

"You'll regret this," she seethed through gritted teeth, glaring dangerously into his eyes, "How dare you interfere, I'll make you regret this."

"Whatever," Zukasu said as he glared back at her, though not as intensely, "Now get outta here, your business here is done."

Stella then turned towards Euphemia with the same murderous look in her eyes.

"And don't think that you're off the hook either, Floozy," she went on as she turned and started to walk away before stopping and turning to glare back at both Euphemia and Zukasu, "I'll make you both pay for this humiliation and you, Floozy; you just lucked out and won a temporary reprieve, but know this; I will destroy you so completely, so utterly that you'll never be able to hope to build your life back up again. You'll just be a pathetic quivering mass of paranoia lying in a cell in some nuthouse on suicide watch."

"You're just full of it," Euphemia replied back, causing Stella's rage to increase, "You're only human, like I said before, so deal with it. You can't change reality; just accept it!"

Stella's eyes widened in shock as she just felt as if she had been punched in the stomach and her face just scrunched up in rage as she turned on her heel and just stormed away without saying another word. However, had anyone been looking at her face, they may have just noticed the smallest trickle of a tear rolling down the side of her face as she struggled to keep herself from crying. She had not cried since she was a child and she sure as hell would not start crying now. Crying was a sign of weakness and she was not weak. She was strong and strong people do not cry. Thinking back to the last time she had shed tears; back when she was only seven and thinking about what Euphemia had told her, she found herself shaking her head as she struggled to contain the tears that threatened to pour out of her eyes.

"You can't change reality," Euphemia's voice sudden echoed in her mind, "You're only human."

"SHUT UP!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, though by now, she was out of earshot of Euphemia, Yumi and Zukasu, so they did not hear her, "I can't change reality huh? I'll find a way to prove you wrong, Floozy. I don't know how, but I'll find a way to change the rules of reality; to bend reality to my will and then and only then; when the lives of every man woman and child on the face of the Earth are nothing more than a living hell, only then will I rest easy since they'll no longer have the audacity to look down on me and I'll start by removing you and that Mecha-freak from the picture."

* * *

><p>Back with Yumi, Euphemia and Zukasu, Zukasu turned to face the two girls as Euphemia continued to stare after Stella, feeling a bit worried for the cruel girl as she sensed that something was off with her.<p>

"Well, now that that's over, I suppose we can all go back to our dorms," he said with a smile.

"Uh huh," Euphemia said with a nod as she continued to stare after Stella.

She did not know why, but she just could not help but feel concerned for Stella. Of course, she knew that it was pointless trying to help her as Stella hated her and Euphemia hated her back, but part of her just could not help but want to find out why Stella was the way she was. She knew that something must have happened to her in her past that made her like this. Someone just was not born sadistic and cruel. So just what had happened to Stella that caused her to become this cruel sadistic and hateful figure that was full of malice, contempt, revulsion and hate towards the rest of the world? She decided that it was time she did a bit of investigatory work into the Harrington Family as she remembered how Zukasu described them and knew that it would be a good place to start.

"You're zoning out again, Euphie," Yumi said in concern, "What is it this time?"

"Oh, nothing… yeah, nothing," Euphemia said as she shook her head, "I guess we haven't seen the last of Stella."

"I'll say," Zukasu said with a nod and a serious look on his face, "Stella won't take this lying down. I'd say that this is just a bump on the road."

Yumi nodded nervously and then walked towards Zukasu, looking rather nervous.

"Um, Zukasu… I… um, well I," she started to say, but then struggled to string her words together as she remembered her attitude towards him for the majority of the day, "What I wanted to say was… I owe you an apology for…"

"Think nothing of it," Zukasu assured her dismissively with a smile, "That was understandable and I've already forgiven you."

Yumi's eyes widened in shock as she felt a wave of relief wash over her and Euphemia smiled before she noticed that Eileen and Hailey, who had been with Stella when she had started chasing Yumi were nowhere to be seen and thinking about it, she realised that the two girls had disappeared before the start of the duel.

"Now where do you suppose Stella's lackeys went to?" she asked curiously and Yumi and Zukasu both looked around as they also realised that Eileen and Hailey had mysteriously vanished.

"Must've scarpered off after Stella exploded after they joined us in laughing at her," Zukasu summarised with an uncaring shrug, "They do that whenever Stella's angry since they're the ones she normally takes it out on."

However, just then, both Eileen and Hailey emerged from a group of trees looking rather cautious as they walked and given Stella's mood when she had left, neither the Obelisk nor the two Slifer girls could blame them.

"Your leader's long gone," Zukasu said, pointing in the direction Stella had stormed off in.

"Oh, thank goodness," Eileen sighed with relief, "I really hate it when she's angry like this."

"Yeah, it's a real pain for us," Hailey added as she stared over at Euphemia and gave her a disapproving glare, "But I suppose I have you to thank for the reason why she never "punished" me for mentioning that she was third in prep school graduation, so thanks."

"Excuse me, but just what are your names?" Euphemia said, ignoring Hailey's comment as it was obvious with the short-haired girl's glare that she was not happy with it.

"Our names, why should we tell you?" Eileen said, glaring at Euphemia.

"Okay then, I suppose we'll just call you, Stella's Lackeys," Euphemia said with a shrug and Eileen and Hailey's eyes widened in shock as they clearly took extreme offence to this.

"My name is Eileen Wallace," Eileen said, shaking her head in disgust, unable to believe that this girl had the audacity to insult them considering the colour of her blazer.

"And I'm Hailey Barret," Hailey said, feeling more insulted than her friend, "There, you have our names, are you happy?"

"Okay, on your way," Zukasu said with a nod and a stern look on his face, "Though for your own safety, I don't recommend that you approach Stella for a while."

"We know that, so we don't need to hear it from you, Mecha-freak," Eileen said as she and Hailey walked off in the same direction Stella had gone off in.

"Gee, what's with them?" Yumi said, feeling a bit taken aback by their ungrateful attitudes.

"Don't let it get to you," Zukasu said, shaking his head, "They're just upset that they're indebted to those they see as inferior to them, plus they never liked anyone who made Stella angry since Stella normally takes it out on them."

"Well, I think that it's time we got back to our dorms," Euphemia said as she let out a yawn, "It's almost midnight and we all have classes in the morning."

"Yeah," Zukasu said with a nod, "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya," Euphemia said as she turned to leave with Yumi and waved back at Zukasu.

"Gee, do you think we should've told him about what happened with you, Euphie?" Yumi whispered as she and Euphemia walked away.

"Nah, I don't think he needs to know," Euphemia said dismissively, "I think he's got enough to think about already."

However, Zukasu watched them both go and unbeknownst to Yumi and Euphemia, he had noticed Euphemia's reactions to his Knightmare Frame monsters during the duel and he recognised the look on her face as being the same look she had had when she had first laid eyes on him. It was obvious that there was something between him, his monsters and Euphemia. However, this feeling of familiarity of his monsters did not crop up before now. The Lancelot was his favourite card and since the duel with Stella, he found himself with a mysterious feeling of déjà vu as he summoned his monsters to the field and whenever he thought about them, he pictured them being bigger; as big as small buildings and being piloted by people and he could not help but reason that Euphemia had had something to do with it. Of course, he knew by observing Euphemia that she was just as clueless as he was when it came to this strange feeling. However, he knew that Euphemia was unknowingly and unintentionally responsible for this feeling and she was experiencing it as well. Whenever he thought of the Lancelot, he pictured himself piloting it, only the version of him in his mind had a lighter skin tone and was addressed by the name, Suzaku; the same name that Euphemia addressed him as when she first met him.

"Just what the hell's going on here?" he thought, feeling a bit scared as this whole thing was indeed frightening.

He then started to walk back to the dorm and took out his deck and shifted through his cards until he came to one called, Honorary Pilot, a monster card that could be sacrificed to bring out Lancelot and the image on the card was a light shin-toned version of himself in a navy-blue and white jumpsuit with golden borderlines and green diamond shapes sown on the sides of the shoulders.

"Suzaku," he said to the card as if expecting an answer back, though he knew that it was pointless, "Suzaku, Suzaku, is this the Suzaku Euphie means?"

He then shook his head and pocketed his deck in his right blazer pocket and continued to make his way back to the dorm, deciding to think about this later.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, standing behind a tree, watching him go was Jaden, who stared after him with a serious look on his face. He had seen the duel and though Euphemia had dismissed her feelings, her reaction was still concerning. The seal that had been placed on her memories of before she had been revived had shown small signs of failing, but the mysterious voice had told him not to worry as that was just normal, but Jaden was still concerned. She had briefly remembered her sister, Cornelia being associated with the Royal Gloucester as it was just a downsized version of Cornelia's customised Gloucester and she did also briefly remembered Suzaku being the pilot of the Lancelot when Zukasu had summoned its downsized version. Of course, the seal had managed to hold, but Jaden was worried that too many incidents like that may cause it to shatter completely and not only that, but Euphemia's friend, Yumi was now aware that something was up and he feared that her interference may ruin everything, but for the moment, he could do nothing other than see how things play out.<p>

"Oh boy, I'm barely even a man and already I'm getting too old for this," he sighed, shaking his head.

He would not harm Yumi if she discovered something she should not have. He would just have to tell her everything and hope that she would keep her mouth shut. He was not the type who killed people just to keep them quiet nor did he like the idea of threatening anyone. He would just get down on his knees and beg and hope that Yumi would not reveal anything.

Another thing that concerned him was the revelation of this Nelkal Uzkikō, a clone of Kallen Kōzuki, who like Zukasu, had a darker skin tone than the original and he just knew that Nelkal and Euphemia would meet seeing how she was a student of North Academy and every year, North Academy and Duel Academy would get together and have a friendly competition in which they would pit their best duellists against one another. Of course, the past two years had seen those get-togethers cancelled due to the Society of Light during his second year and that inter-dimensional incident and the Nightshroud incident during his third year. The only get-together he had been to was during his first year midway through the semester in which he had duelled Chazz and won and he remembered how Chazz had originally been a student of Duel Academy who thought that he was the best, but losing to Jaden and then to Bastion Misawa with the stipulation that if Bastion won, they would switch dorms and Bastion was a Ra Yellow. However, by then Chazz had started to doubt his own skills so much so that he tried to sabotage Bastion's chances by doing away with his deck, but thankfully Bastion had anticipated Chazz's tactic and the cards that Chazz had thrown into the ocean had just been a decoy deck. Bastion had a total of six decks; one for each attribute and a decoy that he had used during his entrance exam duel and after Chazz lost, he ran away, taking his personal boat off the island, but unfortunately, he had run into trouble and his boat sank and he somehow found his way to North Academy and quickly duelled his way to the top and came back to duel Jaden.

"Good times," Jaden laughed innocently as he remembered his old adventures.

However, Jaden had discovered that the reason Chazz was the way he was, was because of pressure that his two brothers, Slade and Jagger Princeton had placed on him. They both had a plan to dominate the world by getting to the top of the worlds of politics, finance and Duel Monsters and Slade and Jagger had managed to carry out their parts, but Chazz, who initially wanted to become the best on his own merit and not because of his brothers' plan and he felt under pressure. In fact, part of the reason he had tried to get rid of Bastion's deck was because he had gotten a call from his brothers who had somehow heard about how his position as the number one student had come under threat. However, even when he became a student of North Academy, he could not escape his brothers' grasp as once he had arrived back at Duel Academy, they had been waiting for him and had arranged to have the duel televised on an international scale as if to demonstrate the power of the Princeton Family and they even gave Chazz a suitcase of rare and powerful cards and pretty much demanded that he use them during the duel, but instead Chazz elected to use the deck given to him by North Academy's Chancellor, Foster in an attempt to tell his brothers that he did not need their help, but he lost and this gave his brothers the excuse to come and effectively disown him for his failure, but Jaden remembered how he had stood up for Chazz and rallied the crowd from both North Academy and Duel Academy behind him and it caused Slade and Jagger, who were clearly outraged to back off and afterwards, Chazz decided to return to Duel Academy, though as per the rules, any new student that came while the semester was still in season had to automatically start at Slifer Red, which Chazz was not too happy about, but he grudgingly accepted it.

Anyway, as he thought back to Nelkal, he just knew that come Duel Academy's annual get-together with North Academy this year, Nelkal would undoubtedly be there and along with her; even more problems as Euphemia would no doubt feel the same sense of familiarity with her as she did Zukasu, though maybe not necessarily to the same extent seeing as how Euphemia never really socialised with Kallen and had only had a brief run-in with her while she, Kallen, Zero and Suzaku had been transported to Kamine Island by the Emperor's supposed kid-brother. However, Euphemia had seen Kallen and seeing Nelkal may trigger something.

"Nelkal," he thought was a laugh, "What sort of stupid name is that? I know that it's an anagram of Kallen, but it sounds like the sort of name someone just made up off the top of their heads. It doesn't even sound Japanese."

In any case, he decided to have Axel look into it as well as continue his investigation into Zukasu. He just shuddered to think sort of cards Nelkal had in her deck and he knew that they would probably trigger an incident like the one that had occurred during the duel. However, before he could think any further, his cell phone started to vibrate and he took it out of his pocket and answered it.

"Talk to me," he said simply.

"Hey, Jaden, it's me, Axel," Axel's voice came from the other end, "I thought I'd let you know that I have an update on the Zukasu Rikuguru mystery."

"Uh huh, by the way, I was about to call you when you called," Jaden said, sighing with relief, "Anyway, you first."

"Okay, here's how it is," Axel started to explain, "The staff at Kaiba Corp have been inspecting his duel disk and as I mentioned, there's nothing wrong with it, so they thought that perhaps he had changed the programming somehow without letting Kaiba Corp know, but further inspections of the disk reveal that the programming had not been tampered with, so the next line of enquiry was that perhaps whoever made his cards somehow managed to design them in such a way that they were able to bypass all the security checks. However, he's just finished duelling…"

"I know," Jaden interrupted with a nod, "I just witnessed it myself. I managed to convince Chancellor Sheppard into confiscating his duel disk while the technicians look it over for signs that the disk had been tampered with."

"I see, well you're probably just wasting your time," Axel said, causing Jaden's eyes to widen in surprise, "While he was duelling, Kaiba Corp decided to shut down his duel disk anyway, but here's the thing. According to the mainframe, the duel disk had indeed been shut down, but according to the data being received from the duel disk of his opponent, the duel was still going on."

"What, that's just not possible," Jaden said in stunned awe, "I saw the entire duel play out and not once did Zukasu's holograms show any signs that they were being forcibly shut down."

"Yes, I know that," Axel said simply, "But according to the data from his opponent's disk, the duel was still going on and yet, according to the data from Zukasu's disk, it had been shut down."

This was indeed a strange new development and it only piqued his curiosity as he was sure now that something just was not right with Zukasu, though he was now totally convinced that Zukasu was just as in the dark as everyone else was seeing as how he had also experienced the sense of familiarity with his Knightmare Frame monsters and witnessing what he had been doing while he was walking back to the dorm.

"I'll tell you what else is weird," Axel went on, indicating that he was not finished, "Kaiba Corp also went through his old disk's duelling history to see if anything could help explain it and here's the thing. According to the data, the disk had only been used for one duel."

"What?" Jaden said in surprise.

"His disk is a legit disk and records indicate that he's had it since his time in prep school, but unfortunately, none of the duels he had participated in during his time at prep school had been logged in its history database. According to the database, the only duel the disk was in was his duel at the Entrance Exams a few days back."

Jaden nodded as that piece of info told him what he had suspected all along, but he dared not voice it out loud; at least not yet until he got more proof.

"Okay, I'll take that into consideration, Axel, but I've also been doing a spot of investigatory work of my own and I discovered someone else who has counterfeit cards that may be able to bypass the duel disk's security checks," he said as he decided to tell him about Nelkal, "Only, she's attending North Academy. Her name is Nelkal Uzkikō."

"Nelkal, what sort of name is that?" Axel asked curiously, "Sounds like this girl's parents only gave her that name because they believed that it sounded cool."

"Yeah, I know," Jaden said as he leaned his back against the tree, "Anyway, I want you to continue your investigation into Zukasu and also investigate this Nelkal while you're at it. Look into her past first and if everything checks out, look into her deck and her duel disks and see if they bear similar hallmarks to Zukasu's."

"Right, will do," Axel said simply and then hung up.

Once Jaden closed his cell phone and put it away, he started to walk towards the main academy building with a serious look on his face. He did not know what powers were at work, but he was determined to get to the bottom of it no matter what.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Euphemia is sleeping in her bed as Yumi it praying to the poster of Slifer the Sky Dragon

"_Wow, that was close, I thought for sure that Stella was gonna kill me," Yumi says sighing with relief._

"_I guess you have Zukasu to thank for that," Euphemia says simply._

"_Yeah," Yumi says._

Yumi tries to wake Euphemia up, but Euphemia wraps her arm round her and reaches up to kiss her, still believing that she's dreaming.

"_Wow, hey, hey, hey!" Yumi screams in shock, "What're you doing?"_

"_Suzaku," Euphemia says dreamily._

Yumi pushes Euphemia away from her as she attempts to kiss her, believing that she's Suzaku in her dream.

"_Euphie, I'm not your boyfriend, stop it, please!" Yumi pleads._

"_Huh, what was I doing?" Euphemia asked in confusion._

"_Trying to kiss me believing that I was a guy," Yumi says, sounding a tad offended._

Euphemia wakes up and apologises to Yumi, but then falls back over.

"_Hey, the Promotional Exams are today, don't you remember?" Yumi says in slight alarm._

"_Just five more minutes," Euphemia says lazily._

Yumi is sitting in class during a written test, but Euphemia is not present and she's getting worried.

Euphemia is running towards the main academy building, but notices Miss Dorothy, the owner of Duel Academy's card shop in need of help and decides to help her.

"_Be late for playing the Good Samaritan or be on time and probably cause that woman to develop a bad opinion of me," Euphemia says questioningly, "Oh well, I can never say no anyone in distress."_

Euphemia helps Miss Dorothy in pushing her broken down van up the hill.

Euphemia arrives in class and somehow manages to complete the test in the remaining time.

"_Wow, that was unexpected," Euphemia say with a sigh of relief, "I had no idea that I could work that fast."_

"_Euphie, where were you?" Yumi asks in a slightly scolding tone, "I was worried sick about you."_

"_Helping an old lady in distress," Euphemia replies simply._

The students all run out of the classroom after hearing about a shipment of rare cards being delivered to the card shop, but Euphemia and Yumi stay behind and walk to the card shop at a leisurely pace.

Once there, they discover that all the rare cards are mostly gone, but Miss Dorothy, remembering Euphemia, gives her a card as a token of thanks for helping her.

"_Wow, thanks I guess," Euphemia says, unsure if she should accept it or not._

"_It's not much, but I need to give you something as a token of my gratitude," Miss Dorothy says._

"_Aw, you shouldn't have," Euphemia says, blushing, "But thanks anyway."_

Stella is walking down the corridor with Eileen and Hailey following her at a safe distance as they inform her that they could not get any new cards for her.

However, Stella waves them off uncaringly as she informs them that her family supply her with her cards.

"_I really don't need such junky cards," Stella scoffs uncaringly, "But what I would really like is for another shot at that no good two-bit Pink-haired Floozy. I know, I'll just duel her at the Promotional Exams."_

"_But you're not in the same dorm as her, they'll never allow it," Eileen informs her._

"_Yeah, they don't let students from different dorms duel one another," Hailey adds, putting in her two-cents._

Stella is seen with a man with short brownish orange hair, cold greyish blue eyes similar to her own and a brownish orange goatee and beard and the man wears a brown business suit.

"_They," Stella says with a rather sinister chuckle, "My Uncle Edward is even higher than "they". I'll get him to make sure that I can duel that Floozy."_

The man, after hearing Stella complain nods his head, agreeing to her proposal.

"_Oh yes, and this time, Floozy, there's nothing that can save you," Stella says in a sadistic tone._

Euphemia and Stella are facing one another as they prepare to face-off in a rematch.

"GAME ON!" they both yell in unison

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

"_With the cards that Uncle Edward gave me, there's no way I can lose," Stella says, feeling that she's already won._

"_Yeah whatever," Euphemia says, totally blowing her off._

Stella unfortunately loses again and glares murderously at Euphemia.

"_No, this can't be, there must be some mistake," Stella starts to complain in disbelieve, "She must have cheated."_

"_I beg to differ," Dr Crowler says triumphantly as he's glad that Euphemia has defeated Stella for a second time._

The man that Stella was talking to earlier is in the crowd watching Stella's defeat and he gives Euphemia a calculating look, which Yumi notices.

"_Next time: Rematch or Grudge Match," Yumi says as she feels nervous about the man's gaze, "Gee Euphie, I don't like the way that man's looking at you."_

"_Who is he?" Euphemia asks, though she's not as bothered as Yumi is._

"_Edward Harrington, Stella's uncle, who's also on Duel Academy's board of directors," Zukasu says with a hint of nervousness in his tone, "I think that you may have just made enemies of the Harrington Family, Euphie."_

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Knightmare Frame: Lancelot

**Attribute** – Light

**Type** – Machine/Effect

**Level** – 8

**ATK/DEF** – 2900/2800

**Info** – During battle between this attacking card and a Defence Position monster whose DEF is lower than the ATK of this card, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Point. Play the Spell Card, Lancelot Upgrade and send this card to the Graveyard to Special Summon 1 Knightmare Frame: Lancelot Conquista to the field in the face-up Attack Position.

"_Why am I not surprised," Jaden says in a somewhat bored tone, "Given the title of the chapter, I should've known that a Knightmare Frame card would be the headliner of the chapter."_

"_Of course," the author says, "And that's not all, but there're two more cards with the name, Knightmare Frame Lancelot in it."_

"_Conquista and Albion," Jaden says dismissively in an uncaring tone._

"_You're ruining the moment," the author complains._

"_What're you gonna do about it?" Jaden challenges._

_The author just groans._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Well this is the last chapter for at least two weeks as I'm going away tomorrow until Monday 12th September and don't expect an update immediately after I return either since it takes me a while to write just one chapter. I was almost worried that I may not get this chapter up in time before I left. I just hope that I don't end up suffering from a lack of motivation after I return. It's always been a thing when I go somewhere when I'm typing up a story; when I get back, I usually suffer from writer's block or a lack of motivation. I know that I'm following the YU-Gi-Oh! GX episode layout for now, but please bear with me. After next chapter, that will more or less stop as the chapter after next is a totally original chapter.


	6. Rematch or Grudge Match

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Rematch or Grudge Match**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden)

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><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – The disappearance of Euphemia's body continues to plague many people within the Code Geass World; especially one; Marianne vi Britannia. Worried over Charles's recent paranoia, Marianne reminisces on her past and how she came to agree with Charles and V.V.'s plan as well as wonder what happened to Euphemia; fearing that Charles's paranoia will eventually drive him out of his mind and also wonder if his paranoia is well founded. Meanwhile, at Duel Academy, it's the first test of the year and all the students are working really hard in order to pass. However, all is not well as Stella; who is still determined to ruin Euphemia decides to enlist the help of her uncle, Edward Harrington, who is on Duel Academy's board of directors in order to ensure that she duels Euphemia in the field part of the test and not only that, but Edward has given Stella some new cards to add to her deck; believing that they will guarantee her victory. Can Euphemia overcome the upgrades to Stella's deck and defeat the cruel teal-haired girl a second time or will Stella get her wish and send Euphemia to the nuthouse? As Euphemia struggles to overcome the odds, she discovers that help has come from a rather unlikely source, but unfortunately for her; she may end up earning the unwanted attention of the Harrington Family, who do not take kindly to those who show up one of their own.

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><p><strong>Code Geass World – C's World, Sword of Akasha <strong>

Marianne vi Britannia stood at the edge of the Sword of Asaska's temple-like structure looking out over the World of C with her usual deceptively kind and gentle smile adorning her face. Looking out towards the sunset-coloured world, anyone who happened to have noticed her would have probably mistaken her as being calm and collected; at peace with herself and feeling content with the way things were. She could forgive them for that, she knew as she did indeed look rather peaceful and at ease, but unfortunately she was anything but calm and peaceful. Since V.V.'s assassination attempt seven years previously, this was the only place where she could exist in her true form. Her physical body had been destroyed since she had used her Geass to escape death and had hidden in the body of one, Anya Alstreim, who had been unfortunate enough to witness her assassination. The reason that her body had been disposed of was because that it was the first time she had used her Geass and not knowing its limitations and drawbacks, she feared that if her body had remained intact, there was a possibility that she would eventually return to it automatically after a certain amount of time had passed. Of course, this was also risky as destroying her body could have also meant that she could have perished along with it. It was a gamble on her part when she had told Charles to dispose of her body, but she had decided to risk it and in the end, it had paid off and also, V.V. no longer worried about the possibility that his assassination had failed as he was convinced that she had died the moment her body had been destroyed if he had feared that she had somehow survived and had simply been playing possum.

"Unfortunately, you never considered the possibility that my Geass allowed me to transport my conscience into the minds of others, did you?" she chuckled in a mocking tone; taunting V.V. as she spoke to herself.

Of course, V.V. had known that she had had a Geass of her own. After all, being in the company of C.C. when she had met the zi Britannia brothers was a dead giveaway, but fortunately for her, V.V. had no idea what her Geass had been capable of and had no idea that she had escaped his attempt to kill her, though she had not immediately escaped V.V. since the girl whose body she inhabited while in the physical world had been a witness and V.V. may have decided to eliminate her to prevent her from talking, but fortunately, Charles had used his Geass on Anya, suppressing her memories and V.V. fortunately left her alone. Anya was currently asleep outside the Thought Elevator within the Imperial Palace that Marianne had used to get here and was under heavy sedation to ensure that she did not wake up and leave. After all, Marianne still needed Anya's body to interact in the physical world and so long as Anya remained at the Thought Elevator's entrance, Marianne could re-enter her mind. However, if Anya were to wake up and leave, then she would be trapped in C's World until someone used a Thought Elevator to enter C's World and then, she would just steal that person's body.

Anyway, Marianne continued to stare out to the yellowish sunset sky as recent events of the past two months ran through her mind; including her son meeting C.C. and becoming Zero as well as Euphemia's declaration of the Special Administrated Zone of Japan, which ended in a massacre that led to the Black Rebellion and Euphemia's body mysteriously vanishing from Schneizel's flagship, the Avalon. Everything was going rather smoothly; Lelouch was back in "Area Eleven" with his memories of his past suppressed, Nunnally was safely back in Pendragon; ready to be used when Lelouch finally did regain his memories and continued his campaign against Britannia. She knew that Lelouch would eventually regain his memories and pick up from where he left off. That much was for certain. However, unfortunately ever since Charles had learned of Euphemia's body's disappearance and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it, he had become increasing paranoid over the possibility that someone was plotting against them.

Normally, Charles would have dismissed it as nothing important and Marianne had to admit that she also would have dismissed it as nothing to worry about if not for the fact that the manner of the disappearance could not be explained and the more Charles worried over it, the more she worried over it.

"I'll admit that it is strange, but Charles is just worrying over nothing," she said dismissively in a voice barely above a whisper.

She had told Charles that and though he did agree with her, she knew that a part of him just would not let it lie and that did worry her.

"I just wish he'd let go of that notion, so far everything's going as planned and running on schedule," she went on, her voice still barely above a whisper, "In a little under a year, the Ragnarök Connection will begin and then all our troubles will be over."

Thinking back on her life, Marianne remembered how she had been born into the Lamperouge Family; a family of commoners who were constantly struggling to make end's meat and how she had enlisted in the military in order to help support her family. Knowing the Britannian rhetoric of Social Darwinism, she had made it her dream to prove that commoners were capable of becoming just as good as; if not better than the nobility. She wanted to prove the notion that people's skills were determined by their social class was wrong and inaccurate and as it turned out; she had proven to be a natural when it came to her duties as a soldier. She had actually proven to be more skilled than many of the others; including those from the nobility and had caught the eye of Charles zi Britannia, who had been a prince back then. It was this attraction that had ultimately earned the title; Knight of Six among the Knights of the Round, though she could easily have become the Knight of One, but unfortunately for Marianne, accomplishing her dream, which she believed she had done did not have the effect she believed it would have had on the nobility. She had initially believed that they would realise that they were wrong in their assumptions about the commoners and befriend her as well as improve the standard of living for the commoners. She thought that they would accept it.

"But it was not to be," she thought bitterly; though her deceptively sweet smile did not leave her face for even a second, "What a fool I was."

Instead however, all she got from the nobility was resentment and scorn. Of course, very few had actually came out and voiced their opinions of her to her face and those few that did… she had had them and their entire families murdered and their properties destroyed. Though everyone knew that she had been responsible, they had no proof to link those atrocities to her and many had grown to fear her due to the fact that she always seemed to wear a kindly gentle smile wherever she went no matter what the situation was. Anyway, though few had voiced their opinions of Marianne to her face, she had seen their contempt and revulsion of her in their eyes and through studying their body language as well as overhear a few of them talking about her behind her back. It had been a huge shock to her to say the least. It seemed to her that the nobility were even more delusional than she had originally thought and just could not stand their warped view of the world being proven wrong. To them, skills were determined by social class and everything was hereditary and nothing was meant to be earned. Marianne had worked hard and earned her place in the Knights of the Rounds, but as far as the nobles were concerned, she was committing a crime just by possessing the skills she possessed. It was because of her skills that she was loathed and despised by the nobility. She was a commoner and was not meant to possess those skills and many came to regard her very existence as an unpardonable crime against humanity. As far as they were concerned, she was nothing more than a disease; a cancer in Britannia's society.

Of course, she did not let it get her down. She remained upbeat and acted as if she was not bothered by all the nobility's animosity and maintained her usual deceptively kind and caring smile and took comfort in the fact that not all the noble families hated her. She had the support of the Gottwald Family, the Waldstein Family, the Felixton Family and the Ashford Family; they were among the few noble families that had no animosity towards her; a son of the Head of the Gottwald Family had served as a guard at the Aries Villa before her "assassination"; the Head of the Waldstein Family, Bismarck was currently the Knight of One and he had respected and may have even fallen in love with her before she had married Charles and he did respect her even after that, the Felixton Family were related to Cornelia and Euphemia on their mother's side and Cornelia and Euphemia had been pretty close to her own children and she helped fund the Ashford Family in their research into Knightmare Frames as well as piloted their prototype, the Ganymede. Anyway, aside from those and a few others, the majority of the nobility hated her and she had secretly vowed to make them all pay and ruin them beyond recovery.

"It was why I agreed to help Charles with the Ragnarök Connection after all," she mused to herself with a chuckle.

She remembered how she had met an individual known as C.C. who had given her a power known as Geass; a contract, C.C. called it as in exchange for this power, Marianne had to help C.C. fulfil her greatest wish, but Marianne had no intentions in helping C.C.. She had decided to use her Geass to take her revenge on the nobility, but she never actually got the chance to use it before she met Charles and after they had fallen in love and Marianne had earned her title as Knight of Six, Charles eventually told her of the Ragnarök Connection and how he planned on ridding the world of its lies and even introduced her to his own brother, V.V., who turned out to be like C.C.; an immortal who had received his Code when he was only ten-years-old and Marianne had agreed to help Charles and to her surprise, C.C., who usually hung around her agreed as well, though Marianne knew that C.C. really did not care whether the plan was successful or not and only agreed because she had nothing better to do. However, Marianne agreed to help because she wanted the whole world to see the nobility for what they really were. The nobility portrayed themselves as kind and caring people with the people's best interests at heart while they constantly screwed them over behind the scenes and knowing that masks would vanish once the Ragnarök Connection was complete, the people would be able to see the nobility for the greedy, corrupt and delusional individuals they really were and with nowhere to hide, they would have no choice but to take responsibility and face up to reality. Oh yes, that would be her ultimate vengeance against those who had dared declare her existence a crime.

Unfortunately, V.V. did not like her participation and Marianne remembered the constant glares he had given her when he believed that she was not looking, though unlike the nobility, V.V. hated her because she diverted Charles's attention away from him. He was pretty much a sibling who was upset that his brother had made a new friend. Maybe it was due to the fact that he still looked like a child. Marianne figured that accepting the Code from his predecessor at such a young age had caused him to retain some child-like tendencies, but at least it was not due to her commoner status that V.V. hated her. She knew that V.V. would have given the same treatment to any other woman that Charles had chosen. However, she dealt with it in the same way she dealt with the nobles; by rubbing it in V.V.'s face like she rubbed her superiority over the nobles in their faces and maintaining her smile, though it had eventually led to her downfall.

"But luckily for me, I managed to escape," she thought with a chuckle.

Anyway, after Charles had revealed his plans to her, she had helped him dispose of the previous Emperor and bring an end to the Emblem of Blood. Once Charles had ascended the throne, he made her one of his one hundred and eight wives and she bore him two children, Lelouch and Nunnally. However, many of the other wives, who were of noble descent resented and despised her like many of the other nobles did and often ganged up on her, but she managed to hold her own against them and their resentment extended to her children; many seeing them both as illegitimate and walking diseases. Marianne even remembered how she had been piloting the Ganymede one time when Henrietta ne Britannia, the mother of Carine ne Britannia had been hassling Lelouch and Nunnally and she had slammed the Ganymede's hand down in front of her to scare her; not once losing her smile, though Henrietta knew that it was fake. The look in Marianne's eyes had told her that the next time she tried something like that, then she would not hesitate to kill her. Marianne had managed to get the other Imperial Consorts to fear her. They knew how dangerous she truly was. She had after all, murdered three nobles along with their entire families as well as had their homes burned to the ground for no other reason other than they had dared voiced their true feelings about her to her face.

However, whereas she maintained the façade of a kind and caring mother to Lelouch and Nunnally as well as play babysitter for Cornelia and Euphemia, she still held a great deal of resentment towards the nobility for their treatment of her and she remembered how devastated and upset she had been when she discovered that attaining her dream of proving their notions on commoners wrong and how she found herself unhappy and miserable despite the smile that seemed to be permanently plastered on her face. However, Lelouch and Nunnally had had it rough and yet, they seemed to just brush it off and be happy, since they had each other. Marianne on the other hand had had no one and in her anger, she failed to realise that she had Lelouch and Nunnally and part of her just could not help but resent her children for… as she saw it, stealing her happiness and this resentment extended to Cornelia and Euphemia as well, though she was aware that Cornelia had looked up to her as her idol. She maintained her façade, but unbeknownst to even herself, she blamed Lelouch, Nunnally, Cornelia and Euphemia for stealing her happiness. Marianne had never known true happiness. Her life had been nothing but an upward struggle; sure she did have her moments, like spending time with Charles, but it was not enough.

When V.V. attempted to kill her and arranged to have Nunnally as a witness, she had been shocked and enraged at V.V. that he had dared to use her seven-year-old daughter in such a manner, but the part of her that resented Nunnally felt overjoyed and marvelled with sadistic glee as she knew that Nunnally would never be the same again and when Lelouch and Nunnally were both sent over to Japan to get them out of V.V.'s grasp, Marianne could not help but laugh at it all. Lelouch believed her to be dead and had vowed vengeance for her, which had led him to done the Mask of Zero once C.C. had met up with him and had given him his Geass. She found the whole thing laughable as she was still alive… at least in a way and he had no idea of the truth. She knew that she and Charles were, in effect, playing him for a fool and though she did indeed love her children to a small degree, the more sadistic side of her just could not resist taunting him. C.C. had secretly kept an eye on Lelouch and Nunnally at the Kururugi Shrine and kept in contact with her, reporting Lelouch's movements. It was how she and Charles came to know that Lelouch and Nunnally had sought refuge with the Ashford Family, who had fallen into disgrace since her "assassination". C.C. would report to her and she, in turn would report to Charles, so they knew exactly what Lelouch was doing.

"But then, Euphemia had to go and almost ruin everything," the former Empress thought to herself as the more recent events entered her mind.

Oh yes, the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan and Euphemia's apparent massacre. Of course, Marianne had known that it had been Lelouch's doing, though according to C.C., he had been explaining his Geass power to Euphemia and had given her an example as a joke and his Geass had apparently reached the point where it could no longer be controlled due to Lelouch's overuse of it. However, Marianne just did not care. It was regrettable that Euphemia had to be killed to stop the massacre, but Marianne found herself indifferent to the whole affair despite Euphemia being one of the people closest to her children. In truth, she did not agree with the SAZ and had been shocked when Charles allowed Euphemia to go through with it on the condition that she relinquished her claim to the throne and she was even more shocked to learn that Euphemia had agreed without hesitation, but Charles had managed to calm her down, claiming that it could be potentially beneficial to the Ragnarök Connection in diverting the people's attention from the ruins on Kamine Island and though Marianne agreed, she still had misgivings, believing that Lelouch may give up on his quest for revenge when the whole plan hinged on him going through with his quest, but Charles had told her not to worry, for he had taken measures to ensure that Lelouch continued playing his part.

However, due to Lelouch's Geass going out of control and him being careless with his words, those measures had proven to be unnecessary, though at first before learning of the truth from C.C., she had been shocked, believing that Lelouch had intentionally used his Geass on Euphemia and found herself horrified of the possibility of her son taking it that far. Sure, she may not particularly care for those people and had been laughing at Lelouch behind his back, but the very idea of a massacre just horrified her to no end. Anyway, Charles had sent V.V. to retrieve Nunnally, much to her surprise, since she was afraid that V.V. may have decided to kill her just for being her child, but fortunately for her, V.V. had done what Charles had asked and it led to Lelouch's downfall, as per the plan, though Suzaku Kururugi had been an unknown factor and Marianne had feared that he may have ended up killing Lelouch, causing a major setback in the plan, but fortunately, he spared him and used him as a bargaining chip to earn a place on the Knights of the Round and that should have been that. Lelouch was safe for the time being under the watchful eye of Villetta Nu, though she was nervous of V.V.'s lackey, Rolo, but like Charles; she was confident in Lelouch's ability to outwit him and like Charles; despite what she told herself, she did not really care all that much for the fate of her children and even subconsciously hoped that disaster would befall them since that part of her was still furiously bitter over Lelouch and Nunnally; and to a lesser extent, Cornelia and Euphemia "stealing" her happiness.

"Everything's going smoothly, but unfortunately, Charles's still worried over the disappearance of Euphemia's body," she thought worryingly to herself as she turned to look around, knowing that she was taking a huge risk being here since V.V. also came here often and could potentially discover her, but for the moment, Euphemia's posthumous disappearance dominated her mind.

Charles was becoming increasingly paranoid over it and in truth, it was worrying her. Sure, she had to admit that the disappearance was unexpected and the circumstances behind it were mysterious, but what had it to do with anything? She knew the details. She knew how it had started with the surveillance camera in Euphemia's room had experienced a fault that managed to sort itself out, but once it did, Euphemia's body had vanished and the doctor and nurse that had seen to her were both on the floor unconscious; totally fine, but with no memory on what they had seen and Marianne knew that they did see something. She remembered through Anya's memories how Suzaku had told Anya how he had practically beat the living daylights out of the doctor, despite knowing that he was being truthful and he had done it because he felt that he needed to hurt someone in order to feel better and still the doctor maintained his story. The body snatcher had apparently entered the Avalon while it was in the air and made off with the body unnoticed and even Marianne found herself wracking her brain in order to explain it. How a person was able to enter an airborne vessel, snatch a dead body and then escape completely unnoticed was beyond her; not that she particularly cared mind you, she was just curious.

It was clearly obvious to her that some kind of supernatural power other than Geass was responsible. After all, V.V. had teleportation capabilities. He had used his teleportation ability to send Lelouch, Suzaku, Euphemia and that other girl to Kamine Island from Shikine Island, though she could effectively rule out V.V. since as far as she knew, the doctor had pronounced Euphemia dead and V.V. did not have the ability to bring the dead back to life, though he had been on board the Avalon, but that had been to tell Suzaku Kururugi about Geass and its role in the SAZ Massacre and he teleported to Ashford Academy afterwards to retrieve Nunnally; not showing any interest whatsoever in Euphemia. She also found herself ruling out Geass since Geass abilities nearly always affected the mind and though it could account for the doctor and nurse's predicament afterwards, it simply just could not explain how Euphemia's body could have vanished without a trace. The security teams had scoured the Avalon countless times and found nothing and Marianne had to conclude that it was someone possessing a supernatural power other than Geass. There was no other explanation and that was that… or at least, it should have been.

Unfortunately, Charles seemed convinced that someone was plotting against him and was trying to sabotage their plan, but Marianne found no proof of that. Like Charles, she did not have a high opinion of Euphemia and believed her to be stubbornly naïve when it came to the real world; refusing to acknowledge the truth even if it had been shoved right up in her face. She believed that Euphemia's kind and caring nature as well as her ignorance of how the world worked would get her in trouble and believed that if the body snatcher had intended to revive Euphemia like Charles initially believed, then he or she would simply be wasting their time if they were intending on recruiting her to help them stop the Ragnarök Connection. Euphemia just was not the type of person who condoned violence and if Charles was right, then Marianne figured that Euphemia would try and reason with them rather than take a violent approach. Euphemia did not have fighting experience, neither was she a good Knightmare Frame pilot. Nope, whoever stole her body was not planning on reviving her for the purpose of stopping the Ragnarök Connection, Marianne figured. Besides, Euphemia's reputation was ruined, possibility even beyond repair. If the body snatcher had revived Euphemia, then the moment someone recognised her, she would probably be lynched to death before she had any idea of what had happened.

"You're being paranoid, Charles," Marianne whispered to herself, "And all your paranoia's beginning to affect me as well."

That much was true, she reasoned. She had told Charles that he was overreacting and though he tried his best to put it behind him, part of him just blatantly refused to let it go and it started to worry Marianne. After all, the idea of a power great enough to bring the dead back to life existing was a frightening concept in itself and Marianne had to ask herself what anyone could possibly want with a dead body? She knew that many people put Charles's paranoia down to the fact that he had already come up with a cover story and without a body to prove his story, he feared that the body turning up elsewhere would disprove his story and Marianne had to admit that that in itself was probably a factor in her husband's paranoia, but not as much as the notion that Euphemia had possibly been revived and was alive somewhere, but if the body snatcher was not looking to stop the Ragnarök Connection, then what could he or she possibly want with Euphemia's body? That question did plague Marianne's mind and subconsciously, she was beginning to wonder if Charles's paranoia was well-founded and Euphemia and her body snatcher were just biding their time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike like Charles believed because Marianne knew that the more he dwelled on it, the closer and closer he was coming to losing his sanity and she feared that he would eventually be driven out of his mind.

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><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Duel Academy Island, Slifer Red Dorm, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair's room<strong>

"Please let me pass my test today, I really need to desperately pass this test," Yumi said as she sat at one of the desks with her elbows on the table and her hands clasped in a praying fashion as she looked towards the poster of Slifer the Sky Dragon as if it were a godly idol.

She had a white band tied round her head with three Monster Reborn cards stuck between the band and her forehead with the card images just above the band. Sitting on the desk were two white bowl plates with a blue circular stripe running round the bowls near the top and inside the bowls were burning candles and Yumi had one bowl at each side of her in front of her and also in front of her above the desk, but beneath the poster was a small shelf just big enough to house one possession, though it currently house a fourth Monster Reborn card with the top leaning against the wall.

"I don't wanna wear this red blazer forever," Yumi went on as she clenched her eyes shut as if fearing some divine punishment from Slifer since she felt that had it been the real Slifer she was praying to then he may have believed that she was demeaning his colour and interpret her request as an insult, "I mean, Red is so your colour, Slifer, but I really wanna advance to the next dorm. Please give me a sign that you'll help me."

Suddenly the sound of a bell ringing caused Yumi's eyes to shoot open as she felt as if she almost jumped out of her skin.

"SLIFER!" she said hastily in a panicked tone, believing that Slifer was really there before calming down and mentally kicking herself for believing such a notion as she realised that it was just the room's alarm clock, "Oh it's just the alarm clock, stupid me."

However, as she turned to turn the alarm clock off, a hand shot out of the bottom bunk and the alarm clock suddenly flew right past Yumi without warning; just narrowly missing her head as it slammed into the wall and broke apart before falling on top of the desk.

"And as usual, Euphie ends up destroying it," the Japanese brunette groaned with a sigh while shaking her head as the hand that had thrown the alarm clock retreated underneath the covers of the bottom bunk.

It had been a little under a month since Zukasu and Stella had duelled after Stella's failed attempt at duelling Euphemia and getting her expelled and things had calmed down somewhat. Everyone had gotten settled in and since Stella's defeat; things had been rather uneventful, though Yumi knew that Stella was not done with them yet. She knew that the cruel teal-haired girl would eventually make another move against them; or more specifically, Euphemia or Zukasu. Euphemia had defeated her on the day of their arrival at Duel Academy and Zukasu had also defeated her when he came across her chasing her when Euphemia also found her after she had escaped from the teal-haired girl, who had been chasing her while brandishing a knife and threatening to kill her. They still saw Stella during class and Yumi could feel her furiously enraged glare burn a hole in Euphemia's back during each class as Stella glared down at her. She knew that Stella was simply biding her time; waiting for an opportunity to take her revenge to present itself.

Anyway, during the four weeks since they had come to Duel Academy, Yumi had slowly, but surely had become more comfortable around Euphemia, James, Terrance, Abigail and Zukasu and had started to open up to them and she found her wariness around them as well as her fear of them ridiculing her becoming less and less, though being Euphemia's roommate, she had learned that Euphemia was not a particularly great morning person since, with nowhere to put the alarm clock, its usual place was beside Euphemia's head on the bottom bunk and every time it went off, Euphemia more or less threw it into the opposite wall, effectively destroying it.

"Oh boy, I just wonder how much longer Arenson-sensei's patience in fixing it is gonna hold out," Yumi went on as she stood up from the seat she had been sitting on and walked over to the sleeping Euphemia in the bottom bunk before placing a hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Hey, Euphie, wake up, the Promotional Exams are today, don't you remember?" Yumi said as Euphemia turned from her side onto her back and drowsily opened her eyes, though from the look in her eyes, it was clear that she was still mostly asleep.

"Suzaku…" Euphemia said, clearly still believing that she was in whatever dream she was having and hearing the name, Suzaku caused Yumi's eyes to widen as she suddenly remembered back to when they had met Zukasu and when Zukasu duelled Stella and how Euphemia seemed to not only utter the name "Suzaku" as soon as she laid eyes on Zukasu, but also appeared to zone out at seeing his monsters and have flashbacks she clearly could not remember once she had been brought back to reality.

However, before she could even begin her train of thought, Euphemia suddenly wrapped an arm round the back of her neck and lifted herself up with puckered lips as she moved to kiss Yumi, clearly still believing that she was still dreaming and that Yumi was Suzaku.

"Whoa, whoa, wow, Euphie, it's me, Yumi…!" the Japanese brunette said in alarm as she hurriedly placed her hands over Euphemia's face and tried to push her away from her.

However, Euphemia threw her other arm round the back of Yumi's neck and with nothing supporting her in her current position; she fell back onto the bed and pulled Yumi down on top of her.

"Euphie, I'm not your boyfriend, wake up!" Yumi said frantically as she pushed her hands down on Euphemia's face as she still attempted to try and kiss her, mistaking her for Suzaku.

Fortunately, Yumi managed to push Euphemia's head down to the pillow and having her head pushing against the pillow and the mattress was enough for her to wake up.

"Huh, what… where am I…?" she said as her eyes shot open, indicating that she was now fully awake.

Yumi almost immediately withdrew herself from the bunk and removed her hands from Euphemia's face, though in her haste, she banged her head against the bottom edge of the middle bunk.

"Ouch," she groaned as she rubbed the sore bit of her head.

"Sorry, Yumi…" Euphemia said with a yawn, "Just what was I doing this time?"

"Well, you threw the alarm clock at the wall, destroying it… again and when I went to wake up, you were obviously still dreaming and you tried to kiss me, believing I was the person in your dream," Yumi explained in a slightly scolding tone, clearly not happy that Euphemia had destroyed the alarm clock once again.

"I tried to kiss you?" Euphemia said as her eyes widened in shock, unable to believe that she had been doing what Yumi had just said.

"Uh huh, but don't let it get to you," Yumi said in a calmer tone as she flashed her pink-haired friend a soothing smile, "I'm sure you were still half-asleep and still dreaming and I was mistaken for whoever you were really trying to kiss. I remember this one time, otō-han, that's Japanese for my dad, was having this really nice dream about my mom and our family's dog got in the bed and started licking his face and he ended up snogging it, thinking it was his wife in his dream."

Euphemia's eyes widened in shock before she let out a yawn and then lay back down on the bed and turned herself over so that her back was to Yumi.

"Okay, just five more minutes and I'll be ready," she said, causing Yumi to open her mouth in shock.

"But the Promotional Exams…" Yumi started to say before trailing off, knowing that it was pointless in continuing as she knew that once Euphemia had her back to her, it was her way of saying "End of discussion".

It was time for the first batch of exams of the year and naturally; Yumi was worried that she was going to fail. The Promotional Exams consisted of a written test in the morning and then in the afternoon, the field tests would be conducted in which the students were paired off against one another and would duel one another and depending on their performance as well as how well they did on their written tests, they would either be promoted or demoted. In the cases of those from Obelisk Blue, it was a test in order to ensure that they stayed where they were and in the cases of those from Slifer Red, it was a test to ensure that they were not expelled since in the past, some students had such poor grades that the Academy had deemed their continued presence as a waste of time and were better off pulling out to try and re-enter at a later date. However, many students had mistakenly believed that the object of the test was to win the duel that made up the field test, but contrary to popular belief, though winning did help increase one's chances of a promotion, it was their overall performance during the duel as well as how well they did on the written test that determined whether or not they were promoted, remained where they were, demoted or expelled and to ensure fairness during the field test, students were usually paired with other students from the same dorm as them. However, despite this, Yumi was still nervous considering that she had only managed to defeat her Entrance Exam Proctor by a miracle. In essence, she viewed herself as the weakest student in the Academy and was destined for failure. She knew that many of the other Slifer Red students had done remarkably better than her during their Entrance Exams. Some of them had breezed by their Entrance Exams and were only in Slifer Red due to their poor grades in the written portion of the exams. Heck, Euphemia even managed to defeat the head of the top dorm when he was using his own personal deck and she was in Slifer Red, though she was only in Slifer due to Jaden as well as her own recommendation.

"Did your dad really make out with your dog?" a voice from the top bunk came, bringing Yumi back to reality as she looked up and saw Blair sitting up in the top bunk.

"Yeah, he did and for the record, he did not "make out" with the dog like you're suggesting," Yumi said with a sigh, feeling a bit embarrassed that she had mentioned that since Blair decided to question her on it, "He was just kissing it as it was licking his face and he spend the next few hours or so in the bathroom trying to wash his mouth out."

"And now Euphie almost kissed you on the lips," Blair laughed, causing the older girl to blush with embarrassment.

"I-I-it's n-not like that…" Yumi stuttered as her face lit up in a bright shade of red, "Euphie was still dreaming…"

"Don't get so worked up over it," Blair said with a laugh, interrupting the Japanese girl, "I know, she thought you were her dream-boyfriend. I was just messin' with ya."

"Well, it's not funny," Yumi said, glaring up at the pre-teen girl, letting her know that she was clearly not in the mood to be teased, "Anyway, help me wake Euphie up, she's gonna miss the Promotional Exams if she sleeps in."

"Easier said than done," Blair said as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and turned so that her front was facing the Japanese girl, "You know how stubborn Euphie is in the morning. I don't think she's a morning person."

"I already gathered that much weeks ago, after she constantly destroyed our alarm clock," Yumi said with a dissatisfied groan.

"Yeah, but when has her tardiness ever affected her grades?" Blair questioned, causing Yumi to calm down as she remembered something.

It was a well-known fact to the faculty that Euphemia was nearly always late for the first class of the day, which was both like and unlike Jaden at the same time. Jaden was nearly always late as well, but unlike Euphemia, he was mostly late for most of his classes no matter what time of the day it was and sometimes he just did not show up at all and did not bother to even catch up on what he had missed and whenever he did turn up for his classes, he nearly always slept through them, acting as if he did not care whether he passed or failed. Euphemia on the other hand was only nearly always late for only the first class of the day and did manage to catch up on what she had missed; spending some of her free time after the last class at the academy's library looking up books on the topics that were discussed in the first class, but even then, she did not miss all that much; just ten to fifteen minutes worth of the teacher's opening lecture and whenever she was tired, she did at least try to make an effort to say awake, which was more that Jaden had done and the faculty had to admit that they were really impressed with her. Euphemia did not have Jaden's personality and yet she possessed some of the traits he had possessed, but unlike Jaden, she at least made an effort to overcome the negative traits that they both shared.

"Oh yeah," Yumi said as she realised that Euphemia always made up for her tardiness, but since the Promotional Exams were more important than normal, she feared that her usual tardiness may cost her this time.

"Just go on ahead," Blair said, stopping her as she opened her mouth to speak, "She'll join you when she's good and ready. Trust me, I highly doubt she's gonna fail."

"Well, okay, if you say so," Yumi said as she gave Euphemia a rather unsure glance, still not a hundred percent convinced, but decided to put her misgivings to the back of her mind as she turned and ran out the door.

"You do realise that exams aren't like ordinary assignments, don't you, Euphie?" Blair said down to Euphemia in a raised voice, to which Euphemia responded with a seemingly uncaring groan.

* * *

><p>Yumi was currently running towards the main Academy building down the footpath leading from the Slifer Dorm to the main building at a rather hurried pace.<p>

"Okay, Yumi, you can do this," she thought to herself with a look of determination on her face that did not look all that confident, "Let's go over this, shall we? A Counter Trap counters a Normal Trap, a Normal Spell counters a Continuous Spell…. no I don't think that's right, is it?"

As she became unsure, her determination started to drastically waver, but she immediately attempted to rebuild her confidence by continuing her mantra.

"A Quick-Play Spell counters a Ritual Spell," she went on as she turned to her left, knowing that she had reached the pathway leading into the main building, but as she ran, she failed to realise that she was in such a hurry that she ended up tripping over her own feet and fell flat on her front with her arms spread out at her side.

"Ouch, I'm such a klutz," she said aloud as she immediately picked herself up and continued to run towards the main building.

* * *

><p>A little while later in one of the classrooms being taken by Thomas Arenson, all the freshmen sat ready to begin the written portion of the Promotional Exam and Arenson frowned when he noticed that Euphemia was notably absent; as was the norm for the first class of the day.<p>

"Must've destroyed the alarm clock again," he thought as he mentally let out a frustrated groan, "But unfortunately I cannot afford to wait for her."

Euphemia's constant tardiness during the first classes of the day were proving to be rather frustrating for him; not because of the fact that she was late, but rather the fact that after he had heard Yumi complaining to Euphemia on how she had destroyed the room's alarm clock, he had volunteered to fix it and every time Euphemia had destroyed it, Yumi had sought him out in order to fix it and since it was a common occurrence, it was proving rather frustrating for him as it was eating into his "alone time" with his wife. Still, he was not one to turn down requests from any of the Slifer students; no matter how frustrating their requests became.

"Okay, class," he started to say as he put his frustrations over Euphemia to the back of his mind, "You may begin writing on the paper in front of you and just so you know; the test ends in one hour."

That was another thing he was not pleased about concerning Euphemia. He was aware that Euphemia always made up for her tardiness, but unlike the previous times, this was a very important exam where tardiness could prove disastrous as far as her grades went. He knew that had she been on time, then she probably would be guaranteed a pass mark, but unfortunately the longer she remained absent, the less time she had to complete her paper and the more she failed to complete, the lower her grade will be since if a student did not finish, then they were graded on what they had done and what they had not done would be marked as wrong answers, so the longer Euphemia was absent; the less time she had to complete the test and the less time she had, the likelihood of a poor grade increased.

* * *

><p>"Where are you, Euphie?" Yumi thought from her spot among the students, feeling increasingly worried for her best friend as she frantically looked up at the double-sliding doors that led out into the corridor as she hoped that Euphemia would enter, "I don't think they'll allow extensions if you don't finish in time."<p>

Sure, Yumi hated trying to wake Euphemia up in the mornings, but Euphemia was still her friend and her kind and caring nature coupled with the aura of friendliness she seemed to give off more than made up her morning attitude. Euphemia was the first person that Yumi could honestly say she felt secure around ever since her lack of confidence her pretty cost her all of the friends she had made in the past. She used to have many friends and at one time, she had managed to win duels and was pretty good… at least she thought she was and she was hoping to impress her big sister, but Seika just was not impressed with her skills and it rather deflated her mood, but still she persisted and refused to give up… that is until Seika decided to voice her opinion one day and pretty much denounced her skills and then claimed that she would never be able to impress her no matter how hard she tried; that she was just wasting her time and it pretty much destroyed her confidence as well as her belief in herself and it caused her skills to diminish and all her friends had pretty much abandoned her after they got tired of her losing all the time. Since then, everyone she met; upon learning of her poor duelling skills and how her sister was so great at duelling, they proceeded to ridicule and mock her, but Euphemia did not do that. In fact, learning of Seika and how good she was in comparison to her little sister seemed to draw Euphemia even closer to Yumi and it was something that Yumi was grateful for and not only that, but it seemed that because of Euphemia befriending other people, those other people did not seem to mind about her inferiority over her sister. It seemed that Euphemia had that effect on people.

"Arigatō, Euphie-chan," she whispered to herself silently as she remembered Euphemia's gentle nature and how it seemed to make others who probably would have had problems with one another just let go and become friends with one another as James, Terrance, Abigail, Zukasu, herself and Euphemia seemed an unlikely group that would want to hang around one another, "Sure, you're a pain in the mornings, but other than that, you're alright."

* * *

><p>Just two rows up from where Yumi was sitting, Stella also noticed Euphemia's absence and gave a rather cruel smirk.<p>

"No Floozy this morning, I wonder where she's at," she thought cruelly, "Not that I particularly care or anything, it's just that it would be something if she failed to show up. A big fat zero in the written exam would work for me after I initiate my next plan to dispose of that bubble-gum-haired harlot and this time; no one will be able to save you."

She then shot a brief glare over at Zukasu as she remembered how his interference in her last plan, which had pretty much gone wrong anyway after Yumi received Stella's phony love letter and had come in Euphemia's place had pretty much resulted in another humiliation on her part; only that time, Zukasu had been the one who had defeated her and if that was not enough, she had been laughed at after it was discovered that she had misspelled Zukasu's name and left a lipstick mark on the back of the envelope when she had claimed that the letter's sender was a boy; evidence that the letter was a fake, but that did not matter to her as someone had shown up anyway.

"And once I deal with the Floozy, you're next, Mecha-freak," she thought as she felt her anger bubbling up from within the deepest reaches of her being, "You'll both pay for humiliating me."

* * *

><p>At that very moment, Euphemia was running towards the main building, knowing that she running late and also knowing the possible consequences since unlike before, she was sitting an exam and her tardiness could very much affect her overall grade.<p>

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, the Promotional Exams are today," she complained to no one in particular as she continued to run, gathering up a dust trail behind her, "Why do these classes always have to start so damned early in the morning? Don't they know that humans in general aren't meant to get up that early? Oh well, no use complaining I guess."

However, as she was talking to herself, she noticed a middle-aged woman that looked a bit fat having difficulty in pushing a van that had obviously broken down up the hill that she had just ran up and came to a skidding stop as she watched the woman struggle with the van. She had the door of the right side of the van open and was obviously not having much success.

"Should I just plain ignore her and make up for lost time or play the Good Samaritan and be even later in arriving at the classroom?" Euphemia said to herself as she pondered on what to do, "Not to mention if I don't help, that woman may end up developing a rather bad opinion of me. Oh well, I just can't say no to someone in distress."

With her mind made up, she rushed back down to where the woman was struggling with her van, which was a dark bluish green colour with a black stripe running along the side. The woman who was struggling with the van had greyish brown hair with a plait-styled tail bunched into four balls, each one smaller than the last with a dark red band separating the last ball from a flame like tip slung over her right shoulder and brown greyish brown eyes. She wore brown shoes, greyish blue jeans, a pink short-sleeved blouse with a thin bowtie tied at the top and she appeared to be wearing a blue apron back to front over her back, though connected to the "apron" straps that were wide enough to cover her shoulders were two dark greenish blue braces that connected the "apron" to the waistline of her jeans. She also wore a pair of thin-rimmed circular glasses with a rather wide nose-bridge and no ear-legs (the part of the glasses that rest on the ears) and attached to the bottoms of her ears were a pair of white earrings with circular hoops attached to them as well as two white bangles on her left wrist.

Anyway, her strength suddenly gave out as the van started to roll down the hill, but to the woman's surprise, it almost immediately stopped.

"Hey, are you okay?" a female came from behind her, causing her to turn her head and see a girl with long pink hair and blue eyes wearing a Slifer Red blazer pushing against the back of the van with her head poked out at the side looking up at her.

"Wow, you must be from the auto-club," the woman said with a sigh of relief that someone decided to help her.

"Auto-club?" the girl, Euphemia said with a look of confusion as she unknowingly let go of the van and stepped out behind the woman while giving her a questioning look before waving her comment off, "Oh, I'm not from any auto-club, I'm just your normal everyday girl just looking to help people whenever I can."

"Well, isn't that nice?" the woman said with a smile before her strength once again gave out and the van started to roll down the hill once more, but Euphemia immediately noticed and rushed back behind the van and push her weight up against it, preventing it from rolling down even further.

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Euphemia said, apologising for releasing the van earlier before trailing off when she realised that she did not know the woman's name.

"Dorothy, you can call my Miss Dorothy," the woman said as she and Euphemia started pushing the van up the hill, which moved fairly easily seeing that there were now two people now pushing it.

"And I'm Euphemia, Euphemia Felixton," Euphemia said, introducing herself since she felt that it was only proper as the woman had given her name to her, "But you can call me Euphie if you want."

"Oh thank you, Euphie, I'll remember this," Miss Dorothy said as she remembered back to three years ago when she was having the same trouble getting her van up the hill and Jaden Yūki decided to help her and be some major coincidence, the time Jaden helped her with her van was also around the same time as now; during the first batch of exams for the year, which were the Promotional Exams.

"How about next time, you remember that extended breakdown warranty?" Euphemia said, causing Miss Dorothy to laugh as Jaden had ended up saying something similar when she thanked him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back in Arenson's class, twenty-five minutes had already passed and still Euphemia had not shown up and Yumi, who decided to give up waiting was going over her mantra, but she was starting to get tired due to the little sleep she had had the previous night due to her praying to the Slifer poster and was starting to say it aloud.<p>

"Normal Trap counters…" she was in the process of saying until she noticed someone walk in beside her.

"Hey, Yumi, I didn't know there was an oral session for these Promotional Exams," a familiar voice came as Yumi looked to her left with a mixture of joy, worry and frustration and her eyes widened when she laid eyes on Euphemia who was smiling at her, "Or maybe next time, you should concentrate on sleeping rather than an all-night Slifer séance."

"Euphie?" Yumi said in a joyous, yet frustrated tone as she brought her fingers up to her eyes and rubbed her eyes with the sides of her index fingers as if she checking to see if she was dreaming or if Euphemia was really there.

"The one and only," Euphemia said with a laugh.

"Just where on Earth were you?" Yumi scolded in a demanding and hushed tone so that she would not interrupt the other students, "I was worried sick about you and you're one to talk, Miss "I'll destroy the alarm clock so I can sleep in despite the fact that these exams are important and my usual tardiness may hurt my grades"."

Euphemia opened her mouth to reply, but a familiar and unwelcome voice stopped her before a single syllable could leave her mouth.

"Hey, Floozy, Jap-Whore, keep it down," the voice of Stella Harrington came from two rows up, causing Euphemia and Yumi to both look up to see Stella standing up and glaring down at them, "Unlike you, some of us actually care if we pass."

"Hey, I want to pass," Euphemia said, though from the sound of her tone, Stella came to believe that Euphemia was blowing her off again, which infuriated her greatly, "Though I do realise that my lateness may affect my grades, but there's nothing that can be done about it now."

Stella opened her mouth to reply, feeling even more outraged than before that Euphemia was treating her as if she was inferior to her again.

"I'm glad you understand the consequences of your tardiness, Miss Felixton," a voice from the bottom and front of the class, interrupting Stella before she could speak and causing Euphemia to wince as she knew that the voice belonged to Thomas Arenson, the Slifer Boys' headmaster as well as her, Yumi and Blair's appointed alarm clock-repair man, "Though I have to say that you're later than usual, but enough about that. I'm not interested in your excuses; just came and collect your paper so you can begin and just so you know, you've only got thirty-five minutes left."

"Yes, sir," Euphemia said with a nod as she made her way to the bottom of the class to collect her paper and then Arenson moved his gaze towards Stella and shot her a contemptuous glare as it was clear that her very presence alone repulsed him.

"And, Miss Harrington, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't insult the other students with such degrading racial language," he said as he scolded her.

"Uh, go fuck yourself, Arenson," Stella commented rather rudely as she stuck her middle finger up at him before sitting down.

Arenson glared furiously at Stella for her rude behaviour, but decided that it was pointless arguing with her since he knew that she had her family's protection and that her uncle would come down on him if he tried to discipline her. He really despised the Harrington Family since his wife, Sophia was biologically related to them, but they disapproved of him and when Sophia, who already disagreed with what they were doing had told them that she was marrying him anyway regardless of their opinions, they pretty much cut her off and disowned her. Sophia was the youngest of three siblings; Stella's father, Lawrence being the oldest and current head of the family and Edward Harrington, Stella's uncle and someone who had infiltrated Kaiba Corp and managed to rise to a position on Duel Academy's board of directors. Arenson knew what the Harrington Family were up to. They were looking to expand their influence and ultimately control and rule the world. They already had connections to many companies worldwide as well as connections to various criminal organisations throughout the world. In fact, they were so well connected that no jury would ever convict them, even if the evidence was so firmly stacked against them as they had their connections on the outside make threats to the families of jurors, prosecutors and judges and carry them out if need be. Heck, even Seto Kaiba himself was wary of them and to make matters worse, Arenson knew that anyone who messed with the Harrington Family… it was not just them that were targeted, but their friends and family were also targeted. Since marrying Sophia, both of them had vowed to work to bring them down and end their reign of terror throughout the world. It was their secret mission.

Sure, Sophia was biologically a Harrington by birth, but she betrayed them and they came to regard her as a traitor along with Edward's two children, Blake and Sonya, whom Arenson knew through Sophia and like her, they had broken away from the family; though according to Sophia, they had both originally been disowned by Edward and Lawrence because they did not perform up to the standards of the Harrington Family and this had been primarily due them both being put under a massive amount of pressure, but once they were disowned and the pressure had been lifted, they both went into the Duelling Pro-Leagues and actually turned out to be very good, though neither Lawrence nor Edward were happy that the "failures" were doing so well outside their control and tried to invite them back into the family, but they both refused, knowing that they only wanted them back so they could control them and the one thing the Harrington Family hated above anything else was one of their own acting on their own and not under their control; especially when they possessed talents worthy of the Harrington name. So in effect; Sophia, Blake and Sonya were all outcasts and Arenson was more than happy to take them in, though Blake and Sonya's managers acted as their guardians.

Anyway, bringing himself back to reality, he watched as Euphemia collected her paper and made her way to her assigned seat to sit her test. He was still miffed at Stella's rudeness, but decided to drop it, knowing that it would only lead to trouble if he pursued it. Sophia wanted to save Stella from her family and herself, but from what Arenson could see, Stella did not look as if she wanted to be saved and he believed that she was a lost cause. Unfortunately, he did not have the heart to tell his wife that. According to Sophia, before Stella became the evil cruel sadistic girl she was today, she had been a rather kind and caring individual and would often be found playing with her cousins; that was before they were both disowned. Neither he nor his wife knew what happened to turn Stella from a nice girl into the sadistic fiend she was today since Sophia had already been disowned and disinherited and Sophia had very little contact with her niece, but Sophia did know that Stella's cruelty had started to manifest nine years ago when Stella was only seven. Arenson admitted that Stella was probably once a kind girl, but as far as he was concerned, that Stella was gone for good. The cruel sadistic Stella was in control now and the good Stella would never come back.

* * *

><p>"Better late than never, eh, Euphie?" Zukasu thought from his position as he observed Euphemia sit down and start writing, "Though, I think your tardiness in this instance will cost you. We're nearly halfway into this test. You'll be lucky if you can even finish."<p>

* * *

><p>"Just look at her, tardy even for exams," Terrance thought from where he was as he watched Euphemia writing, feeling a twinge of jealousy since Euphemia managed to maintain her good grades despite her early-morning tardiness, "How you manage to maintain good grades is beyond me. I really wish you'd share your secret with me because I could definitely do with a lie-in myself."<p>

* * *

><p>"Your tardiness this time may prove to be your undoing, Euphie," Abigail thought from where she was, also feeling a bit jealous of Euphemia, "I could really do with knowing your secret since my roommate often keeps me awake with her many stories that I don't care about."<p>

* * *

><p>"Nice, so she finally made it," James thought from where he was, next to Terrance as he watched Euphemia seem to zoom through the test, "Wow, the J-Man wishes she'd share her secrets with him. Just how can she be late for every early-morning class and still maintain good grades and practically steamroll her through assignments?"<p>

* * *

><p>Thirty-five minutes later, Euphemia sat with her arms folded as she somehow; by some miracle managed to complete her paper with only half a minute to spare as Yumi had fallen sleep beside her to her right; clearly having burned out her brain trying to cram all that information in her head.<p>

"Okay, children, the exam is over and you may all now place you pencils down," Arenson's voice came from the front of the class, "And I can also inform you that you are free to do whatever you want until the field tests this afternoon at half-one. Now you can check out the Card Shack and I advise that you walk; do not run as they're receiving their latest shipment of rare cards."

"Rare cards!" one of the students said in an excited tone as everyone knew that the Card Shack, Duel Academy's card shop that sold cards to the students to help upgrade their decks were expecting a shipment of rare and powerful cards, "They're here already!"

"Awesome!" another student shouted and the rest of them took it as an invitation to get up and run towards the doors; completely disregarding what Arenson had said.

"Oh dear," Arenson said before the students all started making their mad dash from the door, knowing that his advice was going to fall on deaf ears.

However, not all the students had gotten up and started running towards the doors and ultimately to the Card Shack. Euphemia, Yumi, Terrance, Abigail and Stella all stayed behind.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Stella, didn't you hear?" Eileen, Stella's curly-haired orangette lackey said as both she and her friend, Hailey came up to Stella.<p>

"The latest shipment of rare cards is here," Hailey said, finishing Eileen's statement for her.

"So go get 'em," Stella said in a disinterested tone, "I've got more important things to do at the moment."

"W-w-well okay, we'll get a few for you," Hailey said, a bit surprised at Stella's uncaring attitude.

Stella just gave an uncaring grunt as her two lackeys turned and rushed out the door and then she stood up and made her own way to the door at a more leisurely pace.

* * *

><p>Terrance and Abigail had made their way over to Euphemia and Yumi and found that Euphemia had apparently dozed off since her eyes were closed.<p>

"You know, you two, you may want to think about waking up," Terrance said as reached over to Yumi and placed a hand on her shoulder before shaking her.

"Whoa, I failed, didn't I?" Yumi said as she awoke with a start and stood up, "I'm a completely and utter failure!"

"If melodrama was part of these exams, you'd get an A+ for that, at least," Euphemia laughed as she teased her friend in a friendly manner before noticing that the classroom was practically empty, "Huh, where'd everybody go?"

"That's what we're trying to tell you," Abigail said as she folded her arms and brought her weight down on her right foot, "Everyone's at the Card Shack for the shipment of rare cards to use in this afternoon's field test."

"Rare cards, why didn't anyone tell us about them?" Yumi said in alarm as she knew that her deck could do with a major upgrade considering that she had only just managed to defeat the Exam Proctor at the Entrance Exams.

"Because everyone wants the best cards for themselves," Terrance as he crossed his legs and leaned against the side of the desk.

It was no mistake that this shipment had coincided with the Promotional Exams on purpose. The idea was that during the break between the written portion and the field portion, the students would use the time to purchase new cards in order to upgrade their decks and increase their chances of winning their duel. Of course, everyone wanted the most powerful cards for themselves, which was why there was a mad dash towards the Card Shack, so that they could get there first and have the best chance of selecting the cards they wanted and with that in mind, there was no way in Hell any of them were going to tell those of the potential competition that were unlucky enough to forget.

"A waste of time if you ask me," Euphemia said with a yawn as she stood up.

"Huh, why do you say that?" Abigail asked curiously, shocked that someone considered rare and powerful cards a waste of time.

Yumi turned to look at Euphemia with a shocked and confused look on her face, unable to believe that her best friend had just considered the upgrading of a deck a waste of time.

"I'd like to know that as well," she said in disbelief, "You can get new and powerful monsters for your deck as well as powerful Spell and Trap cards. My deck is in desperate need of an upgrade."

"Having rare cards in your deck doesn't automatically make you a winner," Euphemia explained as she shook her head, "Certain cards can only be played if certain conditions are met and you may not have the necessary cards in your deck in order to meet those conditions, so even if you have a rare card in your deck, if it can only be used under certain circumstances and you don't have the necessary cards to bring about those circumstances then, as powerful as it is, it's also useless and it tends to be rare cards that can only be used once certain conditions are met. For example, my Black Magician of Chaos can only be summoned through the Black Chaos Ritual spell card and by sacrificing monsters whose combined levels are equal to or greater than the level of the Black Magician of Chaos. I could have Black Magician of Chaos in my deck, but without the Black Chaos Ritual spell card, I'd be incapable of summoning it."

"Well said," Terrance said with a nod.

"However, if it's a rare card to do with spellcasters, then maybe; just maybe I'll consider it," Euphemia spoke up, admitting that she was also feeling a bit tempted.

"Okay, I think I get it," Yumi said to Euphemia before turning to face the Richardson Twins, "So why aren't you two going and why tell us if everyone's after the best cards for themselves?"

"Oh please," Abigail said dismissively with a dismissive wave of her hand, "One errant card and the delicate balance of our decks would be completely thrown off."

Terrance nodded in agreement with his sister.

"Another reason why I'm not that bothered," Euphemia said as she agreed with Abigail's explanation, "If your deck's a certain theme and you buy a card because of its power and it doesn't fit with your deck's theme, it increases the chances of the new card being useless as you'll have none of the cards necessary to meet the conditions needed to use that card; like Doom Dozer in a Warrior-Themed Deck since Doom Dozer can only be summoned by removing two Insect-Type in the graveyard from play."

"Again, well said," Terrance said as he then turned to Yumi, "And to answer your question as to why we told you two; students are only pitted against those from their own dorms, so it's highly unlikely that we'll be pitted against one another since we're in Ra Yellow and you two are in Slifer Red."

"Well, that's all good and all, but my deck still needs a major upgrade," Yumi complained in a huffy tone.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Euphemia said as she moved to stand up, "If it makes you feel better, then let's go."

They both then walked towards the door at the same leisurely pace as Stella with the Richardson twins following suit.

"Seems that James and Zukasu decided to get their fair share," Abigail noted as she noticed her two other friends' absence.

"Quite," Terrance said as both he and his sister slowed down, letting Euphemia and Yumi get well ahead of them and out of earshot, "However, I think it's about time that we start searching for clues as to what could've possibly happened to our esteemed cousin."

"Yes, I was wondering if we were ever going to get round to that," Abigail said simply, "Though my hyperactive roommate may prove to be a problem."

"I see, but unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about it," Terrance said with a sigh, "Just try to put up with her."

"Easier said than done," Abigail grumbled under her breath as she nodded, agreeing with her brother, but knowing that it would be difficult.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, Euphemia and Yumi rounded a corner as they observed students coming from the Card Shack; some with overjoyed looks on their faces and others with not-so-pleased looks on their faces. Yumi guessed that those with the overjoyed looks on their faces were the ones who had managed to acquire some of the rare cards whereas those that did not look too pleased and miffed where the ones that did not get any and to her surprise, most of those with the overjoyed looks on their faces were Obelisks, though there were also a few Ras, but the majority of those that were not pleased were either Ra Yellows and Slifer Reds. In fact, just about all the Slifers they both passed did not look too happy.<p>

"Stinkin' Obelisks," Yumi and Euphemia both heard a Slifer Red girl grumble to herself, "Lousy Ras, it's not fair."

"Excuse me," Yumi said as she and Euphemia stopped, getting the girl's attention as she stopped and turned to face them.

"Whadda ya want?" the girl huffed, clearly in no mood for a conversation.

"What happened?" Euphemia asked curiously, "You don't look too happy."

"Those snobbish Obelisks shoved everyone to the back of the queue and if that wasn't enough, the Ras had to do the same with us Slifers," the girl fumed as it was clear that she was seething, "First come, first served my ass; it's nothing more than a pecking order where those Obelisks get all the good cards and now there's none left."

"They couldn't have…" Euphemia started to say before she and Yumi turned to face one another with fearful looks on their face.

"Run out of cards already!" they both finished in unison before they both turned and ran off in the direction of the Card Shack, leaving the girl staring after them with blinking eyes as she was not sure what to make of it.

As they both rounded another corner they came to a huge room with stands selling books, Duel Monster cards, Duel Monster figures of various different monsters and other Duel Monsters paraphernalia. In front of them was a counter desk and behind it stood a girl with long greyish brown hair and brownish orange eyes tied at the back with a blue hairband into a thickly wide tail. She wore white, blue and grey sneakers, white socks, a blue miniskirt, a pink short-sleeved blouse with a thin red bowtie, a blue back-to-front apron like overall with green braces at the front that Euphemia recognised since Miss Dorothy wore something similar and she also wore a light purplish blue sun visor hat displaying the Duel Academy logo at the vertical portion at the front and also, the sides and back of the sun visor were covered by her long hair.

"Excuse me, counter girl?" Euphemia asked in a hastily panicked tone, causing the girl to look up at her as she and Yumi both walked over to the counter, "But you wouldn't happen to have any cards left, do you?"

"Oh, sure we have some left, but just regular packs though," the counter girl, Sadie said as she reached off to her left and took out what at first appeared to be a flat sweet in dark green paper with the Duel Academy logo stuck in the centre and placed it on the counter before moving it towards Euphemia and Yumi with her middle and index fingers, "Here ya go."

Euphemia and Yumi both looked at the item, knowing that it was a Duel Monster card pack in complete disbelief.

"We said some, not one," they both said in unison.

"Oh man, this is a disaster," Yumi said in a panicked tone as if the end of the world was right around the corner, "I slept through my written test and now I'm gonna fail my field test because I can't upgrade my deck."

"So take the pack, Yumi," Euphemia said as she reached for the pack and moved it towards Yumi, causing the Japanese brunette to stare at her in wonder and happiness.

"R-really, you'd really give the last pack to me?" she said, unsure what to make of the situation since she had expected Euphemia to claim the pack for herself.

In all honesty, no one had ever really done anything like this for her before. In Duel Monsters, it had always been about getting what you can to get ahead of the competition. Not even the closest of her former friends back before she had lost all confidence in herself had ever offered her a new card to add to her deck. The fact that Euphemia was offering her the last pack was something she had not expected and in truth, she was rather touched as well as a bit curious as to why.

"Gee, no one's ever done that for me before," she said as she felt her mood brighten somewhat as a tear rolled down the side of her face, "Thanks, Euphie."

"No problem," Euphemia replied with a nod as she felt glad that her friend's mood had improved and she flashed the Japanese girl a comforting smile, "You need it more than I do."

"Thanks, but what if…?" Yumi said as she started to worry that her pinkette friend may end up losing, "What if you fail?"

Euphemia just gave a dismissive laugh.

"I sincerely doubt that," she said with a dismissive wave, "Win or lose, I won't fail so long as I give a good performance. That's what many people misunderstand about those exams. It's not about winning or losing, though I have to say that winning does help. Your overall performance is graded and then it's combined with your marks from the written test and that's what makes your final grade. Many people just believe that they have to win their field test duel and they'll advance automatically and that the written portion means nothing. With that in mind, I plan on giving it my all and hope for the best."

"I wish I had your confidence, Euphie," Yumi said, feeling dejected once again as Euphemia explained the nature of the Promotional Exams as it reminded her of the fact that she had most likely failed her written test and she expected to lose in her field test.

Euphie opened her mouth to reply, but a familiar voice stopped her.

"Yoo-hoo, Miss Auto-Club Euphie," the voice of Miss Dorothy came, causing the two Slifer girls to look to their right to see Miss Dorothy walk in behind the counter from a side-room.

"Wow, Miss Dorothy, so you work here?" Euphemia said, unable to believe that she was once again conversing with the woman she had helped earlier that day.

"No, I don't work here, I own here," Miss Dorothy replied with a wave of her hand, "Cool, huh?"

She then gave Euphemia a wink with her right eye, causing Yumi to turn and stare at her friend in confusion.

"Euphie, you know her?" she questioned curiously.

"Uh huh, we met just this morning," Euphemia explained as she decided to give Yumi an explanation as to why she had been much later than normal for the first class, "She was having problems getting her broken-down van up the hill between our dorm and the main building, so I decided to give her a helping hand."

"So that's why you were so late," Yumi realised with widened eyes and Miss Dorothy just gave a laugh, clearly embarrassed as she placed the tops of her middle three fingers over her mouth as she giggled.

"Yep, now you know why I was late," Euphemia said with a nod, "Well… later than normal anyway."

She then turned to Miss Dorothy and smiled, causing the Card Shack owner to blush.

"How nice, you're such a polite girl," she said as she reached under the counter, "You kind of remind me of Jaden Yūki. You know, it was round about the same time three years ago, round about the time of these Promotional Exams that my van broke down on that same hill and like you; he decided to be late for his written test in order to help me; neat coincidence, huh?"

Yumi's eyes widened in shock as she just stared at Miss Dorothy and blinked repeatedly in disbelief.

"Yeah that is a major coincidence; considering that Euphie's here due to a recommendation by Jaden himself," she said, still unsure what to make of it.

"Really?" Miss Dorothy said as she gave Euphemia a questioning look and Euphemia nodded, "Well fancy that. Anyway, like Jaden before you, he and I met one another again at this very Card Shack and like Jaden, I have something for you; just call it a "Thank you" for helping me earlier."

She then brought up another card pack from underneath the counter, causing Yumi and even Sadie's eye to widen in surprise as Sadie did not know about the extra pack.

"Now I know Sadie here told you that we were out of cards, but I do often manage to hide away a few," Miss Dorothy explained and she held the pack out to Euphemia, "For polite young students such as yourself and Jaden."

"Wow, thank you," Euphemia said as she slowly reached out her hand and accepted the pack, "How much?"

"Don't worry about money, it's on me; just a thank you gift for your kindness earlier," Miss Dorothy replied, but Euphemia still felt that it was right to pay for it anyway and reached into her left trouser pocket and took out some coinage before giving Miss Dorothy a total of thirty-five hundred yen.

"I still feel that I should at least pay, but if you're saying that it's free, then how does thirty-five hundred yen sound?" she asked and Miss Dorothy nodded, satisfied and touched that Euphemia had given her money despite the fact that she had told her that she could have the pack for free.

"Pleasure doing business with you," Miss Dorothy said as she took the thirty-five hundred yen and placed it in the till before taking a single five hundred yen coin and gave it back to Euphemia as change.

"Great, now we both have a new card for our decks," Yumi said, feeling her dejected mood lift somewhat; glad that her friend was not leaving empty-handed, though she was still chuffed that Euphemia had allowed her to have the first pack instead of claiming it for herself; which is what most duellists tended to do.

Euphemia nodded as they both turned to leave.

"Thanks for the new card, Miss Dorothy," she called back as she and Yumi both walked back down the corridor they had come from.

"What a polite young girl," Miss Dorothy said to herself with a smile, "I just know that she'll put that card I gave her to good use just like Jaden did when I gave him that Transcendent Wings card."

"You really ought to stop hiding cards like that," Sadie said as she started to walk towards a side-room, "We could get into trouble for hoarding."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Stella was currently walking along a walkway in the main lobby of Duel Academy that was high above the ground with Eileen and Hailey following her at a safe distance in case she decided to lash out at them for not being able to get her any new rare cards.<p>

"It was really hectic at the Card Shack," Eileen was currently explaining as Stella turned to go up a flight of wide stairs that bridged off into to narrower staircases; one going left and the other going right at the top, "And even though the Obelisks shoved everyone else behind them, we were too late in arriving."

"So we couldn't get you any new rare cards, sorry, Stella," Hailey finished for her friend before they both clenched their eyes shut and tensed up, expecting a lashing from their leader.

"Bah, I could really care less," Stella said with a dismissive wave of her hand, "My family supplies me with my cards, so I really don't care because there isn't a person alive capable of beating me no matter what cards they have."

"Unless that person happens to be Euphemia Felixton or Zukasu Rikuguru," Hailey muttered, remembering that Stella had lost to both of them; one a Slifer nobody who just happened to get lucky and the second, Stella's self-proclaimed nemesis due to the fact that he outshone her in Duel Monsters Prep School.

Stella suddenly stopped upon reaching the top of the wide staircase and turned and glared down at Hailey; having clearly heard her and Eileen and Hailey both stopped and seemed to shrink under their leader's furious glare and Hailey felt a wave of fear wash over her as the colour drained from her face since she knew that Stella was going to "punish" her like she had meant to do after she had inadvertently told Euphemia and Yumi that she was third; not first in Duel Monsters Prep School, but fortunately for her, Euphemia had defeated Stella and in her rage, she had completely forgotten about Hailey's "punishment". Unfortunately, this time Hailey knew that she would not have that luxury.

"You really need to learn to keep your mouth shut," Eileen whispered to her friend, feeling concern build up for the only person among the threesome she truly considered a real friend as she knew that there was nothing to divert Stella's attention and cause her to forget this time.

However, Stella just turned away with a snarl as she calmed down and started to walk again with her two lackeys fearfully following her.

"Consider yourself lucky that my next plan in dealing with that Floozy is almost at hand," the cruel teal-haired girl said as a rather evil sadistically psychotic grin materialised onto her face, "And this time, the whole school will see me break her. Oh yes, I've been biding my time for this moment and now all my patience will finally pay off."

Stella felt herself tremble with psychotic excitement as she anticipated her latest plan at psychologically brutalising Euphemia. Ever since her last plan failed and she suffered defeat at the hands of Zukasu, Stella had been seething in fury over how lucky Euphemia had gotten that time and how Zukasu had ruined everything when he arrived on the scene. Fortunately for her, she managed to get off with it and thankfully; no one had found the knife that she had used to try and kill Yumi with after she had humiliated her. The man she had arranged to have been responsible for "raping" Euphemia had been found by Campus Security, but Stella had paid them off to send him back to the mainland since he was no longer required and they had told the hierarchy that he was just some poor homeless man who happened to have gotten lost. Stella was still furious over that night, but she did acknowledge that the man had been lucky that her plan had failed; otherwise he would have been rotting in jail for a crime that he not only did not commit; but a crime that had never really taken place to begin with.

"Lucky fool," she thought uncaringly as she mentally waved him off.

Anyway, since then, she had been plotting; waiting for an opportunity to present itself where she could extract her revenge. She was not a particularly patient person, but being unable to find a perfect excuse to act sooner in which she would not be able to use a legitimate means to act had caused her to grudgingly wait and now, that the Promotional Exams had come, she found her opportunity to get at Euphemia and to her absolute delight, unlike before; this time, the whole school would be watching and Stella preferred having an audience to watch her beat her opponents into quivering masses of paranoia. She preferred it this way as not only would it increase the humiliation factor on Euphemia's part, but it would also send a message to the rest of the school. She planned on making an example out of the "Pink-haired Floozy"; letting everyone else know what happened to those that crossed her and she hoped that it would spread fear throughout the school; making the masses too afraid to duel her and the faculty even more afraid to expel her in case anything happened to her uncle and he somehow got fired; which was next to impossible in her mind, but still, it did not hurt to be careful.

"If you're planning on facing her in the field tests, then I'm afraid that it's impossible," Hailey spoke up; once again seeming to say something that she should not have, "You're both not in the same dorm, so you can't be her test opponent. The rules clearly state that students cannot be paired with those from different dorms. So they won't let you be her opponent."

Eileen's eyes widened in fear as she believed that the short-haired brunette was pushing her luck and expected Stella to shoot them both another enraged glare. However, Stella's only response was a sinister chuckle as her grin appeared to get even wider.

"I'm perfectly aware of the rules in that regard," she replied uncaringly with a wave of her hand, "However, you two seem to forget just who's on the academy's board of directors and who I am. "They"… my Uncle Edward's even higher than "they". I'm going to get him to pull strings to make sure that the floozy ends up becoming my opponent and there's not a damn thing "they" can do to stop me."

She then started to chuckle and before long, her chuckling quickly escalated into full-blown psychotic laughter, causing Stella's two unwilling accomplices to tremble in fear as they both subconsciously moved closer to one another and placed an arm round the other's shoulders in an effort to find comfort.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in an office on one of the top floors of the academy, Edward Harrington, Duel Academy's chief accountant sat at his desk with a glass of whisky and ice in his left hand as he busily zoomed through various articles of paperwork; various bits and pieces to do with accounting and finances. Edward was a fairly clean man with short, neatly combed brownish orange hair, cold greyish blue eyes and a neatly trimmed goatee and beard the same colour as his hair. Currently, he wore brown shoes, brown trousers, a white shirt, a brown tie and a brown coat; basically a brown business suit.<p>

However, despite getting on with his work, he found himself not particularly interested in what he was doing. In fact, he really hated the work his job demanded of him; though he did enjoy the power it gave him, though there was really no reason for him to be on the island at all. Most of the others on the board of directors were back at Kaiba Corp HQ back in Domino and seldom came to the island. However, Edward had gone to the island and was doing his work there. His reason for relocating to the island was because his older brother, Lawrence had instructed him to keep an eye on his daughter, Edward's niece, Stella; not that Edward particularly cared where he worked. He just did not get on well with his niece as Stella flaunted herself around, believing that she was above everyone else; not that Edward found anything wrong with that as in his mind, the Harringtons were above everyone else in the world; it was just that Stella took it a lot further and viewed herself as being above her fellow family members; something that Edward just could not stand. Sure, Stella was the rightful heiress to the Harrington Family inheritance, but she was not Head of the Family yet and yet, she was acting as if she was and it was a major concern to Edward; one that he vowed to discuss with his brother and his wife, Gertrude the next time he saw them. Stella's attitude just infuriated him as she was younger than he was and was not in charge of the family yet, so with that in mind; he believed that his niece should show him respect, but Stella never did show him any amount of respect. Heck, she did not even show her parents respect and considered them beneath her as well and Edward was becoming increasingly concerned that she may have taken the Harrington Family Philosophy too much to heart and may eventually betray the family in favour of her own goals; which… as far as he was aware coincided with the Harrington Family's goals, but Stella wanted everything for herself and did not want to share.

"Speak of the devil," he grumbled as the door to his office slide open and the person he had been thinking about came strolling in uninvited and without even asking if she could enter.

"Yo, Edward, I need you to do something for me," Stella said in a rude demanding tone as if she expected no defiance from him whatsoever.

"What is it?" Edward said, knowing that it was best just to comply with Stella's "request", which he knew was more of a demand than anything else since he did not want to put up with Stella's presence any longer than he had to.

"You know that today's the Promotional Exams, don't you?" Stella went on, totally ignoring her uncle's contemptuous expression adorning his face, "Well, you see, there's this girl I really want to crush, but the problem is, she's a Slifer Red and I'm an Obelisk Blue and as you know, the rules dictate that students cannot be paired with students from a different dorm."

"And you want me to pull strings to ensure that you duel this girl, am I correct?" Edward finished for her and Stella's face lit up with an evilly devious smile.

"Got it in one Edward," Stella said as her smile widened.

"A Slifer Red, you say," Edward said curiously as he put his pen down and curled his thumb and index fingers round his chin and started massaging it as he was genuinely curious as to why his niece wanted to duel a Slifer seeing as the Slifers were the lowest ranked students in the entire school, "Just why do you want duel this girl anyway? The difference in your skills is clearly apparent."

"Not that it's any of your business, but that disgusting little floozy had the audacity to cross me," Stella replied as her expression twisted in furious rage and her voice became clearly infuriated, "She thinks she can look down on me like I'm some sort of insect."

Of course, she had left out the part where she had chosen Euphemia as a target first, but in her rage, that fact had become lost to her.

"So I want you to make sure that I'm her test opponent so I can crush her completely and set an example to the rest of those disgusting maggots," Stella went on ranting, "I want to crush that Floozy so utterly that she becomes suicidal."

Edward just listened to his niece rant as he just nodded, agreeing to her demand. Looking outside into the corridor, he noticed Stella's two lackeys, Eileen and Hailey waiting outside, though they peered in; curious about what was being said.

"Okay, Stella, if it'll shut you up, then I'll do it," he said with a nod, though he had a hard look on his face, indicating that he wanted something in return and Stella groaned as she did not want to return the favour.

Edward brought his hand under his desk and opened a drawer and then, reaching into the drawer, pulled out a small deck of Duel Monsters cards; not a full forty-card deck, but enough for Stella to raise a curious eyebrow.

"I'll pull the necessary strings for you, but in return, I want you to use these cards in your deck to crush this girl like you said you would," Edward said as he handed the cards to Stella and Stella took them and looked them over, "I will admit that I don't particularly approve of your attitude towards me, but at the end of the day, you are still a Harrington and from what I've seen, you sure do act like a Harrington should. If this girl has crossed you, then she's crossed the entire Harrington Family and it is our duty to crush anyone that dares cross us."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Stella said dismissively as if it was no big deal, which caused Edward to wince in annoyance, but he held his tongue knowing that giving Stella a row was pointless.

True, he did not like his niece, but like he had said, she was still a Harrington and he believed strongly in the notion that blood was thicker than water; plus he guessed that this girl must have defeated Stella at some point despite Stella having not mentioned that fact. However, Edward could tell. He knew that Stella would not have come to him otherwise. He had given Stella those cards to add to her deck in order for her to do what she said she would do. Despite his feelings towards Stella, the fact that this girl who had defeated her had defeated a member of the Harrington Family was enough for him to put his animosity for his niece to one side. One rule that the Harrington Family always lived by was that when someone messed with one of them, then they messed with them all. Harringtons were winners and a disgrace on one of them was a disgrace on them all. Edward knew that his brother and sister-in-law were not happy that Stella had finished third and not first when she had graduated from Duel Monsters Prep School as, since she was a Harrington, she was supposed to have come in first place, but they had tolerated Stella's failure due to the fact that the two who scored higher than her were boys and she was the highest ranking female from the prep school; plus Stella had already dealt with one of the boys who had outranked her, which further appeased Lawrence and Gertrude. However, now it seemed that Stella's number one spot was under threat from another female and Edward was determined that the Harrington Family's standing would not be compromised in any way. After all, it was the family's plan to take control of the world of Duel Monsters and it all hinged on Stella being number one.

"Thanks for the new cards, Edward," Stella said with a sinisterly excited smile on her face, "Normally, I'd tell you to go to Hell, but in this case, I'll comply with your request, simply because I can make that Floozy suffer even more."

"Quite, now tell me, what is the girl's name?" Edward asked as he decided to start making the arrangements straight away.

* * *

><p>Later at the venue where the field tests were due to take place, the Duel Academy students had all gathered to take their tests. The room they were in was a huge dome-shaped room with a dark blue ceiling and light blue walls dark blue lines; both vertical and horizontal forming the light blue portions into huge squares. The room was also circular with a huge circular "pit" in the centre with a yellowish orange floor with six duelling field arranged three by three were situated and the walls of the pit were a dark blue colour. There was also a railing running most of the circumference of the "pit" with two staircases at two sides of the "pit" leading down into it in the area between the three by three duelling fields. On one side that did not have a staircase was a huge jumbo-sized television screen and one the opposite side was a huge glass window and inside a separate room behind the window was Chancellor Sheppard and the other faculty members watching over the duels as they took place. This was the observation room and currently, Sophia Arenson, the Headmistress of the Slifer Red girls looked on in concern as Euphemia was currently facing Stella Harrington in the centre duelling field nearest the TV screen at the opposite end of the room.<p>

"Chancellor, this is crazy," she protested as she knew that students from different dorms were not supposed to duel one another in an effort to ensure fairness, "I really must protest. This goes against the rules of these exams."

Of course, she guessed that her brother, Edward, who was standing at the railing next the staircase down to the "pit" to the observation room's right had pulled strings to ensure that Stella faced Euphemia since she guessed that Stella must have seen him about it. She knew of Stella and Euphemia's rivalry as she remembered Stella being brought up after she investigated a congregation of Euphemia and her friends; seeing how many were from different dorms and she believed that the Ras and single Obelisk were harassing the Slifers and she had learned that Euphemia and Stella had had a run-in before and Euphemia had won and she knew her niece well enough to know that she would not take it lying down and so she guessed that Stella was now getting her shot at revenge and that terrified her greatly as she knew what kind of person her niece had become and feared that Euphemia would be permanently scarred emotionally for life.

"Yes, I realise that, but unfortunately, our chief accountant was most insistent that this duel took places," Chancellor Sheppard replied with a sigh, but then cheered up, "But don't worry too much. After all, it's not the first time a Slifer's been paired off against an Obelisk in these exams before."

That much was true. Three years ago, Crowler had pulled strings to ensure that Jaden faced off against Chazz Princeton, who back then had been the highest ranking freshman in the entire school and not only did Jaden hold his own, but he actually went on to win.

"I know that," Sophia said as she had been made aware of Jaden's win during these exams, but still had her misgivings, "But you forget that Euphemia's not Jaden. She was recommended by him, I'll admit, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she'll win like he did."

She then turned to glare in the direction of her brother, who was shooting a smug look towards the observation room as if he knew that she was glaring at him and it only further served to infuriate her, but she suddenly felt a gentle hand clamp down on her shoulder and she turned to see her husband give her a comforting look, though he also glared down at Edward.

* * *

><p>"Wow, hold on; I'm facing an Obelisk… and it's Stella?" Euphemia said in surprise from down in the "pit" as she stood with her back to the huge TV screen and Stella stood opposite her with a rather smug look on her face and her back to the observation room.<p>

Dr Crowler stood off to the side between them and he was not too pleased with the arrangement to say the least. He remembered three years ago back when he still had his vendetta against Jaden and had resorted to underhanded tactics to get him expelled. He had pulled strings to get Jaden to face Chazz during his field test after purchasing the entire shipment of rare cards in order to give to Chazz for him to use. The condition was; he would pull strings to make sure that Jaden was Chazz's test opponent and in return, Chazz would use the rare cards that Crowler had given him to defeat Jaden. Crowler remembered getting to the Card Shack before anyone else and once the shipment of rare cards had arrived, he had purchased every last card from the shipment; much to the students' disappointment to ensure that there was no hope for Jaden to win. He hoped that Chazz would defeat Jaden so badly that he would feel humiliated to the point of voluntarily dropping out, but unfortunately for him, Jaden somehow managed to get his hands on a rare card of his own and used it to turn the duel around and defeat Chazz and dropped Chazz's life points down to zero in a single turn, though the majority of Chazz's life points had been taken away during Chazz's final turn in which Jaden used his new card to counter VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon's attack and deal its attack points as damage to Chazz; destroying his monster in the process and come Jaden's turn, he managed to summon a monster with enough attack points to win the duel.

"Yes, that's correct," he said as he put his thoughts of that incident to the back of his mind, "Normally this wouldn't be allowed, but someone had heard of how you had beaten me during the Entrance Exams while I was using my own personal deck and believed that you deserved a really challenging opponent; so they pulled strings for you in order to give you that challenge."

He remembered admitting to Jaden that he had pulled strings to get him to duel Chazz and then proceeded to mock him by mentioning that he had "hoped" that he had managed to acquire some rare cards, knowing full well that he had not since he had taken them all for Chazz to use, but Jaden did not seem in the least bit fazed at Crowler's fake display of worry. However, this time his worry was genuine as he knew that Stella had gotten her uncle to pull strings for her to face Euphemia and was concerned that Euphemia was not prepared to take on Stella at present. Sure, Euphemia had defeated Stella once before, but that did not mean that she would win this time and; being honest with himself, he rather liked Euphemia despite her early morning tardy-record and being a Slifer. He could honestly say that he was no longer the elitist snob he had been three years ago.

* * *

><p>Up on the main floor overlooking the pit, Yumi looked down in fearful concern as she realised that this was part of Stella's latest plan to get rid of her friend.<p>

"Oh my, I don't like the sound of this," she thought to herself.

"This is clearly a trap," Terrance said from beside her, causing her to look at him to see him glaring down at Stella, "As Bastion would say; "only a cavalier fool would agree to it"."

"I'll do it," Euphemia's determined voice came aloud from down in the "pit", causing Terrance's eyes to widen in shock.

"Guess that makes Euphie a "cavalier fool" as you said," Abigail said from Terrance's other side, "Though I have to agree. I don't think she's thinking this through. Stella's obviously been biding her time waiting for this moment."

"The J-Man's confused," James said from beside Abigail as he looked genuinely confused, "Isn't duelling against opponents from different dorms prohibited in these exams?"

"You're forgetting who Stella actually is," Terrance replied as he turned to face his roommate with a hard "don't argue with me" look on his face, "Being as rich as she is and given her family's overall influence in the world, I dare say she had someone pull strings for her."

"Edward Harrington," Zukasu's voice came causing the three Ras and lone Slifer to turn their heads to see Zukasu walking towards them from behind, "Edward Harrington is Stella's uncle as well as the academy's chief accountant. I'm pretty sure he pulled the necessary strings to give Stella this match."

"Wait, so you're sayin' that she bitched to her uncle till he decided to give into her demands?" James asked with a hint of disgust in his voice; clearly disgusted at the idea that Stella was getting what she wanted due to her family's influence.

"Pretty much," Zukasu confirmed with a nod, causing Yumi to look down at her friend in concern.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Stella and Euphemia inserted their decks into the deck slots of their duel disks and got ready to face off.<p>

"Okay, Stella, if you're that eager to face me again, I suppose there's no excuse in putting it off any longer," Euphemia said as she drew five cards, "Just so you know that I'm aware that this is your latest plan in getting rid of me."

"It really doesn't matter whether you're aware of it or not because this time, I'm gonna destroy you utterly," Stella replied with a smug look on her face as she drew her five cards, "And this time, neither that Jap-Whore nor the Mecha-freak will be able to save you. No excuse this time, Floozy. You're now at my mercy and unfortunately for you, I have none."

"You don't scare me one bit," Euphemia said as she shook her head, giving Stella an angry glare since she had once again insulted her best friend with a racial remark, "And I'd watch my language if I were you. I despise racists like yourself."

"Bring it, you Slifer Whore," Stella said as she blew off Euphemia's comment.

"Consider it brought," Euphemia replied as Crowler ran to get out of the way as both duel disks activated.

"GAME ON!" both duellists yelled in unison as the duel got underway.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Stella**: 4000

"You first, since this is your last duel after all," Stella boasted as she decided to give Euphemia the first turn.

"Why, thank you," Euphemia said in a mockingly thankful tone as she drew her sixth card and saw that it was Horned Kuriboh, "Well, if it isn't my favourite brown furry friend."

She then looked at the cards in her hand and saw that she had Magical Explosion, Cybernetic Magician, Blast Magician, Cost Down and Thousand Knives. She then added Horned Kuriboh to her hand and smiled.

"Kuriboh, I'm going to give you a treat," she thought to herself as she smiled at the Horned Kuriboh card, "We're going to rain down all sorts of moves on Stella, but first…"

She then reached for her Cost Down card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot, causing a life-sized holographic version of the card to appear on the field.

"I play the spell card, Cost Down," she announced as she then reached for her Thousand Knives card and placed it in the graveyard slot, "As you know, by discarding one card from my hand, I can lower the level of a monster in my hand by two and I choose my Cybernetic Magician, enabling me to summon him directly to the field without a sacrifice."

She then reached for her Cybernetic Magician card and placed it horizontally on the middle monster space, indicating that she had summoned it in defence mode and the Cybernetic Magician (2400/1000) appeared on the field kneeling down on one knee and with his arms crossed over his chest with his staff in his right hand.

"You remember this guy, don't you, Stella; from our first match?" Euphemia said in what sounded like a mocking tone, "He'd like to get reacquainted."

Stella growled as she glared furiously at the opposing monster as she remembered that this was the monster that Euphemia had used to defeat her the last time they duelled.

"Oh I remember him alright," she growled in a low tone as she drew a sixth card, "But this time, things will be different."

She then looked at her hand and found that she had E-Barrier, Giant Behemoth, Ultima Weapon, Ultima Ritual, Mystical Space Typhoon and Sacrificial Bypass, which she just drew.

"Appreciate the upgrades, Edward," she thought as she gave her uncle a brief glance to her right.

She then pushed a button on her duel disk, causing the field spell slot to open up and placed her Sacrificial Bypass card, which had the image of a blonde haired girl wearing a white dress tied to a wooden pole and two masked men in priest like robes standing in front of her with their hands out at their sides with their palms facing upwards towards the sky and the image had a red X over it into the slot and it closed.

"First I play the field spell, Sacrificial Bypass," Stella announced as a light brown colour appeared to shoot out in all directions from Stella's duel disk and engulf the entire field and the duelling field disappeared and was replaced by the barren landscape in the Sacrificial Bypass card's image; complete with blue sky; though there was a red X in the space between Euphemia and Stella, "And with this field spell in play, we can both summon level five or higher monsters without the need to sacrifice those already out on the field. Think of it as kind of going back to the infancy of Duel Monsters where you didn't have to sacrifice monsters and could just summon any monsters from your hand regardless of its level; not that it'll do you any good, you Floozy."

* * *

><p>"Sacrificial Bypass, is that card even legal?" Yumi asked no one in particular from where she was up in the crowd as she noticed that those who had finished duelling had come to watch Euphemia and Stella due to the fact that it was a Slifer VS Obelisk match.<p>

"The J-Man's wondering that as well," James said, putting in his two cents.

"Sacrificial Bypass's effect in allowing all monsters to be summoned to the field regardless of their level applies to both players, so no; it's not illegal," Terrance explained as he analysed the situation, "As well as proving to be a major asset to its owner, it can also work against them as their opponent can also summon high-level monsters without having to sacrifice monsters already out on the field."

"That's correct, though I did hear rumours that the card was originally intended to be a Continuous Spell that only provided the non-sacrifice rule to its owner, but they changed it to a Field Spell that gives both players that advantage after Industrial Illusions rejected the proposal," Abigail put in, "Most cards that become illegal are only made illegal due to the fact that they give their owners an unfair advantage. They normally start off as being legal, but after it becomes clear that that their owners have too much of an advantage when they play the cards, they become illegal. That's probably why Sacrificial Bypass was changed. If the original proposal had been accepted, then it would have been made illegal right off the bat."

"Yes, you're right," Zukasu said with a nod and a serious look on his face, "And it was the Harrington Family that was behind the card's creation."

"Huh, are you saying that Stella's family made the card?" Yumi asked as she turned her head towards him with a curious look on her face.

"Not exactly," Zukasu said, shaking his head, "They did come up with the idea of the Sacrificial Bypass card, but they did not create it; at least not directly. You see, the Harrington Family has an awful lot of influence in various industries throughout the world; including the gaming industry and Duel Monsters is right at the top of their list of games they have influence in. They have people from within various companies under their payroll and it's unfortunate to say, but Industrial Illusions is one of those companies. Some of the company's employees are under their payroll and it's through them that cards like Sacrificial Bypass came about. Heck, mostly all of the Harrington Family's decks are made up of cards that they themselves are responsible for. However, when the Harrington Family's spies tried to push ahead with Sacrificial Bypass's creation, they were stopped by Pegasus and many of those who were loyal to him and they refused to sanction the card's release in its original form, so the Harrington Family had told their lackeys to change their proposal to the one you're seeing now and to their relief, Pegasus agreed to the amended proposal."

Everyone nodded as they all turned back to watch the duel.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Stella smirked as she reached for her Giant Behemoth Card and slapped it down on the middle monster space. A huge purple muscular monster that looked a lot like a giant furless dog appeared on the field. The monster had horns mounted at the sides of its head pointed straight ahead and a line of brownish red hair running from the top of its head to the base of its neck and its tail had three pairs of bluish grey diagonally positioned spikes growing outwards. The Giant Behemoth (27002700) roared at Euphemia and Euphemia's eyes widened in awe as she noticed just how muscular it looked.

"And now, my Giant Behemoth will take my vengeance for my previous defeat by destroying that so-called robot," Stella said as she let out a smirk, "And get this, when Giant Behemoth attacks, I'm allowed to choose the mode of the opposing monster and you know what, I think I'll choose attack mode."

As soon as she said that, Euphemia groaned as she moved her Cybernetic Magician card into a vertical position, causing it to go into attack mode as per Stella's declaration of her monster's special ability allowing her to choose the opposing monster's mode.

"Now, Behemoth, destroy the floozy's Cybernetic Magician and avenge my previous defeat with Charging Slash," Stella said as she pointed at the Cybernetic Magician.

No sooner had the words left her mouth, the Behemoth charged at the Cybernetic Magician and then once it got close enough, raised its front paw and slashed at the Cybernetic Magician with its claws, causing the cybernetic spellcaster to scream before shattering into triangles and disappearing.

**Euphemia**: 3400 – **Stella**: 4000

Euphemia groaned as she removed her Cybernetic Magician card from its monster space and placed it in the graveyard slot.

"I gather that losing more life points than I should have is one of your monster's special abilities," Euphemia said as she knew that she should have only lost three hundred life points, but had somehow lost six hundred instead, "Either that or my duel disk's broken."

"I can assure you that your duel disk's not broken in any way," Stella chuckled sinisterly as she took great delight in Euphemia's cluelessness, "You see, whenever my Giant Behemoth destroys a monster, the difference between its attack points and the opposing monsters attack or defence points; depending on what mode the monster's in is doubled when dealt as damage to the destroyed monster's owner."

"I see," Euphemia said, nodding her head in acceptance and Stella became rather infuriated at how Euphemia acted as if it was no big deal, "Though if that's true, then attacking Cybernetic Magician while he was in defence mode would have caused a lot more damage to my life points."

* * *

><p>"That's true," Zukasu said from up in the crowd, "Giant Behemoth also had a piercing effect, meaning that it can deliver damage no matter what mode the opposing monster's in and seeing how Cybernetic Magician's defence points are way lower than its attack points, she could had dealt a massive blow to Euphie's life points if she had chosen to leave it in defence mode."<p>

"Then why didn't she?" Yumi asked curiously as she felt her worry for her friend increase as she knew that Stella had obviously done that on purpose and was worried for what she may have planned for Euphemia.

"Probably because she wants to draw this out and make Euphie suffer for as long as possible," Zukasu figured as his look intensified as he watched over the duel, "I know Stella, this is what she does. She's not letting Euphie gain an early lead like last time, but she still wants to draw this out for as long as she can in order to deal the maximum amount of damage and destroy her utterly."

"Euphie!" Yumi thought worryingly in alarm as she looked down at her friend with a look of fear on her face; knowing that Stella would not be as easy to beat as before.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Stella scoffed at Euphemia's statement, knowing that it was true, but in truth; she did not really care. She wanted Euphemia to suffer for as long as possible before she ended the duel. She wanted to install fear and the sense of hopelessness in the pinkette. She wanted Euphemia to believe that no matter what she did or how hard she fought, there was nothing she could do that would help her win. She had done this countless times before to her previous opponents, but in this case, she really wanted to ensure that there was no hope of recovery for Euphemia.<p>

"Yes, I could have, but I don't want to end this duel too quickly," Stella admitted as a cruel sadistic grin etched itself onto the edges of her lips, "I want to make you suffer and I want you to know that no matter what you do or how hard you struggle, there's not a card in your pitiful deck that can save you and even if by some fluke you do have a card capable of helping you, which I doubt. The odds of you drawing it are incredibly slim."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Euphemia said with a dismissive wave, clearly not all that bothered by Stella admission since she had already guessed as much, "Can I have my turn now?"

"Yeah, I end my turn," Stella growled, feeling her good mood give way to her increasing anger at Euphemia's seemingly uncaring attitude towards her own predicament.

* * *

><p>"I think I understand how this girl managed to get under your skin, Stella," Edward thought from his position as he watched the duel progress, "Nothing seems to really faze her. She's not in the least bit troubled or affected by the trash-talk. Usually whenever someone's being trash-talked, they take it as an insult, but she doesn't seem to care."<p>

He continued to watch as he thought about his niece. Stella was a brutal and ruthless duellist. Trash-talk was commonly used to anger opponents and increase the likelihood of them making a mistake as people tended to just lash out without thinking whenever they were angry. Stella's strategy usually revolved around this before destroying her opponents' spirits and using her verbal assaults to install doubt within their minds in which they started to doubt their own abilities and start to believe what Stella was telling them until they lost the will to continue the duel and then Stella would unleash her wrath on them; scaring them to the point where they were too afraid to duel again.

Unfortunately, this Euphemia girl did not act the way Stella believed that she was supposed to and Edward knew that Stella just did not know how to handle that, so she was becoming angry herself and though he knew that Stella planned on brutalising this girl with the overall brute strength of her monsters, he was smart enough to know that her anger could also work against her as she could be the one who ends up making the mistakes and it could very well cost her the match and given Stella's lack of respect towards him, he would have been rooting for Euphemia if not for the fact that Stella was his niece and he believed strongly in the Harrington philosophy that when someone messed with one Harrington, then they messed with them all and Euphemia's rivalry with Stella meant trouble for the Harrington Family.

In truth, he was torn. Part of him wanted Euphemia to win as he felt that Stella deserved to lose due to her lack of respect for anyone; including those in her family and he felt that she could do with a lesson in humility and if Euphemia had been a fellow Harrington, that part of him would have proved triumphant. Unfortunately, the more dominant part of him wanted Stella to win and use the cards he had given her to do it because Euphemia was not a Harrington and Stella was. Euphemia's fight with Stella was a fight with the entire Harrington Family. Her victory over Stella was an assault on the Harrington Family and in Edward's mind, Euphemia needed to know her place. He knew that she had been recommended to attend the academy by Jaden Yūki, but like Stella, he believed that she was just a nameless nobody that Jaden picked up off the streets because he had taken pity on her. Nobody messed with the Harrington Family and got away with it. This Euphemia girl had messed with the Harrington Family and needed to know what happened to those who were foolish enough to push their luck. It was a shame as he knew that Euphemia looked like a fairly decent girl, but unfortunately she had made a mistake when she decided to make an enemy out of his niece and she needed to be made an example of and Edward was determined that Stella was going to crush her so completely and utterly that she would never recover and spend the rest of her life in a nuthouse on suicide watch. That's what the Harrington Family did to those unlucky enough to cross them. They ruined them psychologically, physically and financially and in cases were that was impossible, they had killed their targets along with their friends and families.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Euphemia drew her next card, which turned out to be Apprentice Magician and she could not help but groan as she knew that it would not help her in her current predicament.<p>

"Bad draw?" Stella taunted in mock-curiosity and then let out a laugh, "Face it, you're finished."

"You're full of yourself, you know that?" Euphemia said, shaking her head, "Just because I've had a bad draw doesn't mean you've won. Now, I summon Apprentice Magician in defence mode and that'll do it."

She then placed her Apprentice Magician (400/800) card horizontally on the middle monster space of her duel disk and the tomboyish female magician appeared to jump out onto the field before dropping into a kneeling position and placed her staff on the floor, though she did not let it go and she rested her other arm on her knee.

"That's it?" Stella asked in surprise before she almost immediately reverted back to her sadistically happy mood, "That's got to be the lamest turn I've ever seen; not that I blame you. Against my Giant Behemoth, that's all you can do."

She then drew her next card as she commenced her own turn. Her card turned out to be Cactaur and she smiled as she looked at the Ultima Weapon and Ultima Ritual cards in her hand.

"Two of the cards Edward gave me, this is just too easy," she thought as she trembled with sadistic excitement, "When I'm through with that Floozy, she'll rue the day she met me and then I'll deal with the Mecha-freak."

She then looked up in Zukasu's direction and shot him a hateful glare.

"You'll join the Floozy soon enough," she went on in her thoughts, "And for good measure, I'll also deal with that Jap-Whore and the rest of the Floozy's pathetic band of misfits."

She then felt her rage boil as she remembered how when her plan to lure Euphemia out to the Obelisk Boys' Dorm failed, Yumi had bitten her when she tried taking her hostage and then shoved her to the ground. It may not have been a defeat in a duel, but she found that it was just as humiliating and she vowed that she was going to make the "Jap-Whore" as she had dubbed her, pay.

She then reached for her Cactaur card that she had just drawn and placed it on the monster space to the Giant Behemoth's left.

"First, I'll summon Cactaur to the field," she announced as the Cactaur (600/900) appeared on the field.

"Not this guy again," Euphemia thought as she braced herself for a quill-assault as she believed that Stella was going to use its special ability to take another thousand life points from her, but she suddenly noticed Stella reaching for another card; surprising her.

"Then I'll play this ritual spell, Ultima Ritual," she said as she held out a spell card with the image of two giant black fire torches that appeared to be made of metal and both torches were lit, but behind the two torches was a massive black orb, "Not only did I get my uncle to pull strings for me, but he was also kind enough to give me some new cards in order to upgrade my deck so that I could crush you."

"Whatever," Euphemia said dismissively as she shook her held, causing the teal-haired girl to growl furiously.

"Take this seriously!" she shouted as she inserted the spell card into the middle spell/trap slot, "Stop looking down on me like I'm an insect because you're just a nobody; you hear me, a nobody!"

"Just finish your turn," Euphemia replied with a hint of annoyance in her tone as the image displayed on the Ultima Ritual card appeared on the field; black orb and all, "You'll never break my spirit. I know that's what you're trying to do. If you want rid of me so badly, then you'll have to kill me."

* * *

><p>Up in the crowd, Yumi's eyes widened in fearful shock as she heard her friend make that declaration and she found herself shaking her head as her fear for Euphemia's safety and well-being increased.<p>

"No way, why'd you make that declaration?" she found herself saying aloud before she could stop herself, "Stella's the sort of person that'll actually do it. Don't think that she won't."

She knew that what she had said was true. She knew that Stella was perfectly capable of committing murder and just by looking at her, Yumi knew that not only was she capable of such an atrocity, but she could do it and not feel guilty afterwards. Stella knew how to kill off her conscience and it frightened Yumi greatly. She remembered back when she had fallen for Stella's fake love letter when she believed that Zukasu had betrayed her and Euphemia. When she had shown up looking for Zukasu, Stella had revealed herself and when she had decided to use her as bait to lure Euphemia to her, she had panicked and ended up biting Stella and then shoved her to the ground before running away and Stella ended up chasing her while brandishing a knife. Yumi was no fool. She knew that the knife was not just for intimidation. She knew that Stella had every intention of using it when she caught up with her and if it had not have been for the arrival of both Euphemia and Zukasu, she knew that she would not be alive right now.

Apparently, the others also felt the same way as they had equally concerned looking expressions on their faces.

"That fool," Terrance muttered, knowing that Stella would actually go through with it just simply by studying her, "Has she got a death wish or something?"

No one answered as they were too concerned as to what Stella's reply would be.

* * *

><p>"You're really something, you know that, Floozy,?" Stella said with a sinister chuckle before her look returned to its usual sadistically happy look, "Anyway, with this spell card, by sacrificing monsters from the field or in my hands whose total levels equals or exceeds level eight, I can summon my new monster to the field."<p>

On the field, the Giant Behemoth and the Cactaur moved over to a torch; the behemoth to the one on the left and the Cactaur to the one on the right and then they both disappeared in the same manner as the two monsters that Euphemia had sacrificed to summon the Magician of Black Chaos during her duel with Dr Crowler at the Entrance Exams when she had played the Black Magic Ritual spell card. Stella reached for another card in her hand after she removed the two monster cards from their respective monster spaces and discarded them in the graveyard and slapped it down on the middle monster space and the orb on the field started form white cracks that moved all over it before it exploded.

"Meet Ultima Weapon," Stella boasted with pride as the new monster landed on the ground and crossed its arms in front of its head and then quickly moved them to its sides before letting out an almighty roar that seemed to cause the floor to shake, "And he's going to put the hurt on that pathetic magician of yours."

The monster on the field was pure black in colour with the body of a dragon and attached the front of the body at the top was a human like upper torso that appeared to be decked in black armour with a red orb in the centre of the chest. However, the creature also had the head of a dragon that also appeared to be decked in the black armour and it also had two metallic looking bird like wings mounted on the back of the human torso. All in all, it looked a bit like a centaur, only with the features of a dragon rather than a horse.

"Ultima Weapon," Euphemia repeated as she looked at the dragon-like centaur creature in awe.

Ultima Weapon (3000/3000) just stared at her with a fierce glare.

"And now he's going to destroy your Apprentice Magician," Stella said as she pointed to the Apprentice Magician, "Ultima, turn that pathetic excuse for a magician to ashes. Go Ultima Beam!"

Ultima Weapon brought its hands to the sides of the orb in its chest and started to form a blue energy ball between them, gathering the energy from the orb in its chest. After a few seconds, Ultima Weapon took the ball and held it out in front of it with its arms stretched and the ball fired a blue beam of energy at the Apprentice Magician, causing her to scream as it made contact. However, her scream was quickly silenced as Euphemia crossed her arms as she brought them up over her eyes and did not see her monster shatter and disappear.

**Euphemia**: 3000 – **Stella**: 4000

"Oh and when Ultima Weapon destroys a monster, that monster's attack points are dealt as damage to your life points," Stella announced as she explained why Euphemia's life points had decreased, "So count yourself lucky that she wasn't in attack mode otherwise you'd have lost a lot more life points in addition to that; not that I'm complaining. After all, the longer this duel goes on, the longer I get to see you squirm like the nobody you are."

* * *

><p>Up in the observation room, Sophia looked increasingly worried as she witnessed her niece dominate the duel between her and Euphemia. She knew that Stella was intentionally dragging this out to prolong Euphemia's suffering; not that Euphemia looked as if she was suffering. In fact, Sophia looked absolutely astonished that Euphemia was able to maintain her composure despite Stella's cruelty, but she knew that all Euphemia was doing was making Stella even angrier and Stella was not someone anyone wanted to anger. Sophia knew that if this continued, Stella would end up eventually losing her sanity; not to mention, Euphemia would eventually break as everyone had a breaking point and she shuddered to think of the consequences. Euphemia was such a kind and caring individual. Through observing her, Sophia had seen an unlikely group of people become friends because of her and they were all from different dorms; two from Slifer, herself included, three from Ra and one from Obelisk. They did not look like the sort of people who would want to hang out with one another due to their differences and neither did they seem to be put off by Duel Academy's colour-coded hierarchy and from what Sophia had seen, Euphemia had been responsible for it all. She did not deserve this punishment.<p>

"This is totally unfair," she protested as she turned to level a glare at Chancellor Sheppard, "Chancellor, stop the match!"

"Huh?" Chancellor Sheppard said as he stared at Sophia; surprised at her expression that seemed to say, "Just do it and don't argue with me".

"Sophia," Arenson said as he moved to restrain his wife should she decide to get physical.

"Euphemia doesn't stand a chance out there," Sophia went on as she continued to rant, "This match shouldn't have occurred to begin with."

"I have to agree with her," Crowler said as he decided to voice his own opinion, "This is a complete mismatch."

Of course, he remembered back when Jaden had taken these exams, he had been watching in glee; delighting in Jaden's struggle. However, that was then and he knew that if he was still the same person he had been back then, then he just would not have cared and let the matter slide. He hoped that Euphemia would pull off a miracle like Jaden had done, but he knew for a fact that Euphemia was not Jaden and even though Jaden had recommended that Euphemia attend the academy, he knew that Euphemia may not necessarily pull of a miracle like he had done and he really had to admit that Euphemia was growing on him. She had a kindness that he never dreamed existed and he had seen her group of friends; what he described as two nerds, a punk, a girl who constantly looked down on herself and a prep school graduate who graduated the top of his class get together and become friends despite their various differences and he was smart enough to know that Euphemia had been the one responsible, though he still had his doubts about Zukasu due to Jaden's revelations four weeks previously, but he saw no reason to bring them up at the moment. He also remembered how Euphemia had apologised to him when he had noticed that she had been put off by his effeminate appearance when she believed that she had offended him and also when she had become concerned for his well-being when one of her moves had knocked him off his feet during the Entrance Exam. He could tell that Euphemia was not the sort of person who wanted to offend anybody no matter how different they look and it was a trait that he was grateful for.

"Stop the match?" Sheppard said as he looked to be pondering whether or not to agree or not, "But Stella herself specifically asked for this match and you know that her uncle's higher than I am in the hierarchical chain."

"I could care less what that monster I have the unfortunate pleasure of calling my brother demands," Sophia said firmly as she shot the bald-headed man a look that told him that she was not asking, but telling him to stop the match, "You will stop this match right now or else. As a Slifer Red girl, Euphemia is under my care and as Slifer Red Headmistress, I'm looking out for her well-being."

Of course, she was also worried about Stella. She knew that if Euphemia somehow managed to pull off a miracle, then it would only lead to more problems later on as Stella would not tolerate suffering a second defeat to the pinkette, not to mention it would earn Euphemia the unwanted attention of the entire Harrington Family as; being a Harrington by birth, she knew how close-knit they were and how a fight with one of them meant a fight with them all. It would only cause problems for Euphemia in future as she knew that her brother, Lawrence, Stella's father would not take too kindly to someone who beat his daughter as Stella's ranking in the duelling world was instrumental to the Harrington Family's plan in conquering the world of Duel Monsters.

"Yes, I realise that," Sheppard said after he recovered from his shock, "However, stopping the match could have serious repercussions as well. Do you honestly think that Stella's going to accept it if we end the match like that, or Edward for that matter?"

"I could care less what that monster does," Sophia replied in defiance.

"Sophia, I realise that when it comes to your family, you have issues," Arenson said as he walked in front of her and placed his hands on his shoulders in an attempt to comfort her, "However, Chancellor Sheppard's right, the match can't be stopped. It could have repercussions for Euphemia as well. Think, if we stop the match, then Stella's just going to get at her some other way; not to mention that Edward could use his influence to seriously screw with the academy. I know how you feel and believe me; I feel the same way, but we're in a no-win situation here. So please, just calm down and let the match continue and hope that Euphemia can find a way to win."

For a while, no one said anything and Sophia looked as if she would not back down, but at length, she sighed in defeat.

"Okay, you win," she said in a defeated tone, but then shot Chancellor Sheppard and her husband a glare, "But just so you know, I'm not happy with it."

"Fair enough," Arenson replied with a sigh, knowing that that was as good as he would get with his wife at the moment.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Euphemia just brushed herself off as the dust from Ultima Weapon's attack settled, despite the fact that the dust was holographic and not really there and to Stella's fury, Euphemia still did not look in the least bit phased.<p>

"How is it that you're able to keep your cool even though you know you're gonna lose?" the cruel teal-haired girl demanded furiously, "You're really pissing me off, you know that?"

"This duel isn't over yet," Euphemia replied with a look of fierce determination on her face, "The duel's not over till the last card is played and it's my turn and I choose to forgo my Apprentice Magician's special ability."

Of course, she knew that she could use Apprentice Magician's special ability to summon Old Vindictive Magician in the facedown defence position and then use its special ability to rid the field of Stella's Ultima Weapon, but unfortunately, she did not know what Stella would do next. Besides, for all she knew, Ultima Weapon could be immune to monster and card effects for all she knew and she'd lose another monster. Thinking it over, she decided not to risk it and drew her next card, which turned out to be Watapon.

"No good," she thought to herself with a groan, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to continue playing defence and hope for a miracle."

She then reached for her Blast Magician card and then slapped it down in the middle monster space in the horizontal position.

"I summon Blast Magician in defence mode and call it a turn," she said simply as the Blast Magician (1400/1700) appeared on the field and dropped to one knee with his arms crossed over his chest with a staff in his left hand.

The Blast Magician had light bluish white skin and wore a dark purple jumpsuit with a light bluish white line running almost horizontally over his left hip and then ran down his left leg till a quarter of the way down to his knee. His sleeves also had red rings round them and he had armguards that were red and black running round them and at the outward tops, the armguards formed a point. He was also decked in a red robe with light bluish purplish white and golden decorations in the form of various lines and crescent shapes and the robe also cover the right side of his torso and formed a shoulder guard with a purple orb at the centre of the bottom edge of the guard as well as a golden outline. He also had a helmet similar to the one the Dark Magician wore and was red and black; black at the sides and back and the red and black stripes circles the rounded portion of the helmet with golden borderlines and a purple orb at either side where the horizontal edge met the vertical edge and a golden crescent shape with the bottom point touching the orbs and the top point pointing downwards diagonally facing forwards. The front of the helmet came downwards, forming a point and obscuring the magician's upper face; including the eyes from view. His staff had the same red and black striped pattern running its length; only they ran diagonally, causing a spiral effect. The top of the staff had a purple circular orb with a white circumference running round the edges and a strange diagonally positioned double-edged blade attached to it. The blade at the bottom end looked a lot like a scythe and the blade at the upper end looked a bit like a meat cleaver.

"Another defence manoeuvre, how original, but in case you've forgotten, my monster inflicts damage on your life points anyway regardless of what mode your monster's in," Stella said in sadistic delight, "But I guess you've realised that there's nothing you can do no matter what you draw for it's only a matter of time before I deplete all your life points, though I do hope you'll continue to struggle. The longer this duel drags out, the longer I get to see you suffer."

"Just make your move already," Euphemia stated as she shook her head, causing Stella's eyes to widen in surprise, "Unless you plan on boring me to death."

"Alright then!" Stella growled in seething fury, feeling increasingly infuriated at Euphemia's lack of fear or despair.

She then drew her next card and saw that it was Omega Weapon; the most powerful monster she had at her disposal and the last card that Edward had given her and this caused her to push her anger to one side as she knew that Omega Weapon could easily prove more effective than Ultima Weapon in decreasing Euphemia's life points.

"This is just too good to be true," she said to herself, though Euphemia heard her and Stella then turned her attention towards Euphemia and flashed her a sadistic grin, "Well, Floozy, I have to say that if you thought Ultima Weapon was formidable then just wait till you see Omega Weapon."

"Omega Weapon, you mean you have a more powerful monster in your deck than Ultima Weapon?" Euphemia asked in genuine surprise, though her tone was mostly curious rather than fearful.

"That's right," Stella said as she reached for her Ultima Weapon card to remove it, "And all I have to do to summon it is sacrifice my Ultima Weapon."

She then removed the Ultima Weapon card from the monster space on her duel disk and replaced it with the Omega Weapon card. On the field, a beam of white light seemed to shoot down from the holographic sky of Stella's field spell and envelop Ultima Weapon, causing Euphemia to cross her arms and raise them over her eyes, shielding them from the brightness of the light and then, after a few seconds, the light diminished and standing in the place of Ultima Weapon was Omega Weapon (4000/4000), which looked like a grey clone of Ultima Weapon. They only differences were the absence of an orb in its chest; the chest area was completely grey with armoured chest plates and the front where the dragon like body arced upwards to meet the torso was also different. Instead of an upwards arc, the front formed a monster's head with the human torso mounted on top. The head had a pair of golden yellow eyes and two row of shape teeth that adorned its mouth. All in all, it looked a bit like a lion's head.

* * *

><p>"That's it, that's the way," Edward thought from where he was with a smile on his face, "You've used the cards I've given you well and you're also acting like a Harrington should. A pity for that Euphemia girl though; if only she hadn't decided to mess with the Harrington Family, her life just may have ended up going better."<p>

That much was true. Despite him wanting his niece to crush this girl to maintain the Harrington Family's reputation as well as avenge her previous loss, a small part of him could not help but pity Euphemia. She looked to be quite a kind and caring girl and did not seem like the sort of person who would go looking for trouble from people like Stella, but unfortunately for her, she had decided to mess with the wrong person and she had to pay the price. An example needed to be made of her to remind others that the Harrington Family were still on top and were not to be trifled with.

* * *

><p>"Oh man, four thousand attack and defence points," Yumi said from where she was in the crowd, "How the hell did Stella get her hands on a monster like that?"<p>

"Her uncle," Zukasu replied as he shot a glare over in Edward's direction, "He probably gave her those cards to use against Euphie."

"A level ten monster with four thousand attack and defence points; such monsters are extremely rare," Terrance said as he analysed the situation.

"I guess Stella's just extremely lucky that her family had such a card at their disposal," Abigail added, putting in her two cents.

"Gee, if Ultima Weapon's effect was something to worry about, the J-Man would really hate to see what this monster's effect is," James said as his eyes studied the new monster as he marvelled at its appearance.

"Yeah," Zukasu said with a nod as he stared down at the field as his concern for Euphie increased.

Unfortunately, before he could ponder further, a new arrival suddenly caught everyone's attention and Abigail noticeable groaned at realising who it was.

"Hey guys, what's the haps?" the voice of Alicia Riverton came, causing everyone to turn and see the sugar-high bubbly blonde bound over to them, "What's going on?"

"We're just watching our friend duel and unfortunately she's not doing all that well," Abigail said with a fake smile on her face as she resisted the urge to just take Alicia's deck and shove it down her throat.

She could honestly say that after four weeks of being lumbered with the girl that she was slowly, but surely losing her sanity. It was becoming increasingly difficult to tolerate her and Abigail feared that she would lash out in anger at Alicia if this kept up. She remembered the countless times that Alicia kept her awake reciting various memories in her life's story or reciting old fairy tales even after Abigail had told her repeatedly that she did not care and she knew that she was reaching her limit with her. She did not really hate Alicia or anything and knew that she did not deserve to be yelled at for what she was doing. After all, Alicia was just being herself and that was not a crime. Unfortunately, Abigail's self-proclaimed friend had this habit of unknowingly annoying those around her, which made mostly everyone want to avoid her. Abigail knew that if things continued, she would end up doing something she would later regret and she feared the day in which her anger would boil over and she ended up breaking Alicia's heart all because she could not control herself and stop herself from saying things that; though true, she did not mean.

"Oh," Alicia said as she walked over to the edge of the "pit" where the railing was and looked down to see Euphemia and Stella duelling, "Which one's you're friend? Surely not Mean-Girl, I hope."

"Mean-Girl?" Yumi said in confusion before realising that Alicia meant Stella as she remembered Abigail telling her that her hyperactive roommate had a habit of giving people nicknames relating to either their appearance, personality or name, "Oh, you must mean Stella, no she's not our friend. The girl with pink hair, Euphie is our friend."

"I see," Alicia nodded as she stared down at Euphemia, "And what's her name?"

"Euphemia, Euphemia Felixton," Zukasu said with a brief nod, "But we call her Euphie."

"Oh, well I'll call her, Pinky," Alicia said as she turned to face Yumi and realised that she did not know who she was since she had not met her outside the Slifer Dorm that time she had found Abigail there, "And you are?"

"Yumi, Yumi Fujiharu," Yumi replied and Alicia's eyes widened in shock.

"Fujiharu… does that mean you're related to Fuji?" Alicia asked curiously, causing Yumi to groan in dissatisfaction as she knew exactly who Alicia was referring to.

"Yes, Seika Fujiharu is my onē-sama, which is Japanese for big sister," she admitted in frustration as she expected her to start ridiculing her and making comparisons between her and her sister, which deflated her quite a bit.

"Awesome, that's so cool," Alicia said as she jumped up and down in excitement, causing Yumi's eyes to widen in surprise as she clearly did not expect this reaction, "You'll be, Little Fuji and Fuji will be, Big Fuji from now on."

Yumi just gave a rather uncomfortable groan since being called little and her sister being called big only served to worsen her feelings of worthlessness in comparison to her sister.

"See what I mean?" Abigail whispered to her as Alicia turned her attention to the "pit" where Euphemia and Stella were duelling.

Yumi only nodded and remained silent.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit" Stella smirked as she pointed a Euphemia's Blast Magician.<p>

"Okay, Omega, let's put that no-good nobody of a Floozy in her proper place," she said as she flashed Euphemia a devious smirk, "Light Pillar Blast on that Blast Magician."

Omega Weapon responded by rearing up on his hind legs with the lion like head arching forwards towards Blast Magician as a Yellow energy ball started to form in the centre in front of its mouth and then it dropped back down on its forelegs in a pouncing fashion and the energy ball fired a golden energy beam at the Blast Magician, completely vaporising at after it let out a terrified scream.

**Euphemia**: 200 – **Stella**: 4000

"Let me guess, the ability of your Omega Weapon," Euphemia summarised as her life points took another blow; only this blow was far worse than the others, "I receive double my destroyed monster's attack points as damage whenever Omega destroys one, am I right? Since Blast Magician's attack points were fourteen hundred and I lost twenty-eight hundred life points and since two times fourteen hundred is twenty-eight hundred, that's how I came to that conclusion."

"So, you're good at math," Stella boasted as she reached for her E-Barrier card, which had the image of a white crystallised cone with a pink base pointing in a horizontal direction and placed it in the second left spell/trap slot, causing a facedown card to appear on the field, "Anyway, I'll just place this card facedown just for kicks. Your move, Floozy."

* * *

><p>"No way, a monster like that can't be legal!" Yumi protested from up in the crowd, "Dealing double the destroyed monster's attack points as damage to the owners life points… that's just not fair. That could end a duel in one attack."<p>

"I have to agree with you, but unfortunately, most illegal cards start off as being legal," Zukasu said as he glared down at Stella, totally agreeing with Yumi, "However, with the influence of the Harrington Family and seeing how Omega Weapon is one of their own ideas, I highly doubt that it will be made an illegal card. You see, cards mostly only become illegal when it becomes apparent that it gives their wielders too much of an unfair advantage, like Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End, which enables the user to pay a thousand life points in order to send all the cards on the field and in both players' hands to the graveyard and to inflict three hundred life points worth of damage to the opposing player for each card sent to the graveyard and if there's an awful lot of cards on the field as well as in both players' hands, it could cause massive damage to the opposing player, which was why it was banned. Unfortunately, Omega Weapon probably won't be banned due to the Harrington Family's influence over that card."

"But what about Sacrificial Bypass," Yumi asked as she remembered their discussion after Stella had played the card at the start of the duel, "You said that it would be…"

"That's because the unfair advantage was detectable right off the bat before the card was even brought into circulation," Zukasu interrupted, knowing exactly what Yumi was going to bring up, "Industrial Illusions was able to act because the card hadn't been made back then. This on the other hand has made it into circulation and now that it is, the Harrington Family have full say on whether or not it becomes illegal and I highly doubt that they will since it's one of their own card ideas."

"It doesn't seem fair that a card that should be made illegal is legal just because one family doesn't want it to be illegal and has enough influence to kick up Hell if they don't get their way," James commented bitterly with his arms folded as he glared down at Stella, "At least with Sacrificial Bypass, they were able to nip it in the bud."

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Euphemia stared down Omega Weapon feeling rather nervous and a bit fearful despite not showing it. She looked over at Stella who was still smirking; obviously believing that she had already won and with Euphemia only down to two hundred life points and Stella's remaining untouched at four thousand, things were definitely looking bleak for the pinkette. There was also a monster with four thousand attack points on the field and whose special ability dealt double the attack points of the monster it destroyed to the monster's owner's life points and with only two hundred life points left, Euphemia knew that unless she drew something that enabled her to act, Stella would win when her next turn came around.<p>

"Okay, Euphemia," she thought as she closed her eyes and let out a calming exhale, "Calm down, the duel's not over yet. I can still turn this around somehow. I just know that there's a card in my deck that can help. I just have to draw it this turn. Like Jaden said, I have to believe in my deck and like Yūgi said, I have to trust in the Heart of the Cards; same thing really, just different ways in saying it. At least Jaden didn't turn out to be a carbon-copy of Yūgi."

"Make your move, Floozy," Stella said, growing a bit impatient, but then smiled as she believed that Euphemia was giving up, "Or maybe you've realised just how fruitless your pathetic struggle is. There's not a card in your deck that can save you and even if by some fluke you did have one, I doubt that you'll be able to draw it."

"We'll see about that," Euphemia replied as she practically moved her hand to the top of her deck and snatched the top card away from the pile, "I believe that my deck will pull through for me in the end."

Stella just stared at her for a brief moment, blinking in confusion before she then burst into laughter, crossing her arms over her stomach and grabbing hold of her sides as she lurched forward a bit.

"Your deck will pull through her you, that a good one," Stella laughed as she looked at Euphemia as if she was crazy, "Do you actually believe that your deck is alive or something? That's rich. I bet you're trembling in fear on the inside and you're starting to hallucinate. Cards are just ink on paper. They're not alive and these monsters in front of us are just mindless, harmless holograms. I think you're losing it."

Euphemia did not know why, but she swore that she heard Omega Weapon growl at hearing Stella's comments that somehow sounded rather cruel to her and she could also have sworn that Omega Weapon turn his head and shoot his mistress a rather insulted glare, but she shook her head, putting it off as a trick of the light and looked at the card she had drawn and gasped in surprise.

"This is…" she thought, trailing off as she then stared at the Horned Kuriboh card in her hand, "What do you think, Kuriboh, should we try it?"

"Whooow," Euphemia heard in her head, causing her to gasp in shock, wondering if she had really heard it, but regardless, she took it as a sign that she should use the card, Transcendent Horns, which had the image of a small brown-haired child in an orange dress with her hands clasped in front of her as if praying and behind her was a huge transparent older girl with light brownish blonde hair, emerald green eyes and wearing a pink dress, white choker and golden tiara with a green orb hanging from the front.

It looked almost identical to the image on the Transcendent Wings card, only instead of the two girls possessing angel wings, they both had two golden horns stuck to the sides of their heads that curved upwards till they almost touched and then they shot upwards in a straight line and a white energy ball with a blue aura appeared to be forming at the top and shout of lines various shades of blue in all directions; clearly representing the ball's shining light.

"Okay then, I suppose that we've got nothing to lose," Euphemia thought with a nod.

She then took her Horned Kuriboh card and placed it on the middle monster space horizontally.

"I summon Horned Kuriboh in defence mode," she said as Horned Kuriboh (300/200) appeared on the field underneath a face-up version of its card.

* * *

><p>Up in the crowd, most of the girls all squealed in happiness with love hearts appearing in their eyes as they were mesmerised by how cute the brown furball with eyes looked, even if it did have horns.<p>

"KAWAĪ!" several Japanese girls shouted.

"OH HOW CUTE!" several of the others squealed, not being able to get over Kuriboh's cuteness and many girls started making cute comments in different languages.

* * *

><p>"They do realise that Euphie's a girl as well, right?" Yumi said in complete disbelief as she witnessed the girls' reactions.<p>

"You do realise that it's Horned Kuriboh and not Euphie they're going gaga over, don't you?" Zukasu replied as he cleared things up.

"Well I still think it's weird that they're acting that way," Yumi commented with conviction.

"The J-Man bets you're only feeling this way because the person that played it was a girl," James teased jokingly; "You wouldn't feel this way if Euphie was a guy. Though girls going gaga over one another wouldn't be all bad."

"PERVERT/HENTAI!" both Abigail and Yumi shouted as they spun round delivered a double-uppercut to James's face, causing him to lift off the ground before falling back down to the ground.

"Sorry," James apologised from down on the floor, "Didn't mean to say that part out loud."

"You're forgiven," Yumi said as she held out her hand and helped him to his feet after he grabbed it as both Yumi and Abigail summarised that his comment had just been a slip of the tongue.

* * *

><p>Back down in the "pit", Euphemia then reached for her Transcendent Horns card and placed it in the middle spelltrap slot.

"And I'll play one card facedown and that'll do it," Euphemia said, feeling rather at ease since she knew that with Transcendent Horns, she could possibly win this duel during Stella's turn, "Now, call your attack; I dare you."

Stella looked a bit taken aback at Euphemia's boastfulness as she drew her next card, which turned out to be Bio, but she almost immediately shook it off, deciding that Euphemia had accepted the fact that she was going to lose; not once considering her facedown card, which had now appeared on the field behind the Horned Kuriboh. In fact, she had completely disregarded Euphemia's facedown card, either not noticing it or choosing to ignore it; believing that it was useless to Euphemia.

"Okay then; you want it, you got it," Stella said with a smirk, believing that she had the duel won, "Omega, fry that furball with Light Pillar Blast."

Omega Weapon responded by rearing up on its hind legs, but Euphemia smirked.

"I was hoping you'd do that," she said as she took her Magical Explosion and Watapon cards and discarded them into the graveyard, "I discard two cards in my hand to play, Transcendent Horns."

She then pushed the activation button on her duel disk and her facedown card rose up, revealing its image and causing Stella's eyes to widen in absolute shock and disbelief.

"No way, how'd a loser like you get your grubby hands on a card like that?" she said as she realised that it was too late to call off Omega Weapon's attack, which was unleashed right at that moment.

The Light Pillar attack slammed into Horned Kuriboh, who had adorned a golden helmet that appeared out of nowhere. The helmet was shaped like a dragon with green eyes and a red orb embedded atop its head and had three claws on either side that held Horned Kuriboh in place. It also had white feathers jutting down at the bottom next to the golden dragon's tail that formed a magnificently beautiful tail and beside that was a third thin bluish purple tail that ended with a stereotypical shield-shaped end. All in all, it was an almost identical helmet to the Helmet worn by Winged Kuriboh LV10, only instead of white angel wings; a set of golden horns took their place. The horns were positioned exactly where the wings should have been, only they curved forwards in front of Horned Kuriboh and before the two curve met, they shot off straight in front of Horned Kuriboh. At the tips of the horns, the Light Pillar energy beam had stopped and appeared to be reforming into an energy ball.

"NO WAY!" Stella screamed in absolute disbelief, "THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE! I AM UNBEATABLE!"

"Unbeatable, I think I proved that wrong in our last match and then Zukasu reminded you when you tried to get me expelled," Euphemia commented as she gave the cruel teal-girl a harsh look, "Anyway, by playing Transcended Horns, I can evolve Horned Kuriboh into a level ten monster and in his level ten form, by sacrificing himself during my opponent's battle phase, he can deflect the attack right back at you, destroying your monster and dealing its attack points to you as damage."

"No, I won't let it end like this," Stella thought furiously as she remembered her own facedown card; the one she had originally played just for a laugh, but she never imagined in her wildest dreams that she would actually need it.

"Okay, Horned Kuriboh, I trust you know the drill," Euphemia said as she clenched her right hand into a fist and then thrust it forwards, "Take it away."

"WHOOOOOW!" the loud noise of Horned Kuriboh LV10 (300/200) came, seeming to boom as a white line appeared underneath him and appeared to erase him from existence as it moved upwards and Omega Weapon's Light Pillar attack was sent hurtling right back at it, completely destroying it as it let out a roar of pain before shattering into triangles.

"I activate my trap, E-Barrier," Stella said hurriedly as she pushed the activation button on her duel disk, causing her facedown card to rise and the same crystallised cone on the image appeared in front of her as the oncoming attack slammed into her, causing her to take a few steps back from the phantom sensation of being hit.

**Euphemia**: 200 – **Stella**: 2000

"Whenever I'm targeted by a monster or card effect that deals damage to me, by activating E-Barrier; the damage is automatically cut in half," Stella announced as her boastful mood returned, "Nice try, Floozy; I had to admit that I was worried there for a second. You almost had me. I never thought in a million years that you'd get lucky."

"Lucky… nah, I just happen to have a soft spot for sweet old ladies," Euphemia said as she remembered that Transcendent Horns was the card that Miss Dorothy had given her back at the Card Shack when all the rare cards had already been claimed, "But unfortunately, I have no such soft spot for you, and that's bad for you because with no monsters or facedown cards to protect you and my turn coming up, all I need is the right card and you're through."

She then drew her card and smiled as she held it up to Stella and Stella just scoffed.

"Dark Magician Girl, ha," she scoffed uncaringly, believing that she was safe, "In case you've forgotten, Dark Magician Girl is a level six monster, which means you can't summon her to the field without a sacrifice, so I'm safe."

"Yes, under normal circumstances, you would be correct," Euphemia said as she nodded in agreement with Stella's explanation, "But in case you've forgotten, you played the field spell, Sacrificial Bypass, whose effect applies to both players, which means I can summon her to the field without having to sacrifice another monster."

Stella's eyes widened in shock as this shocking realisation hit her. In truth; despite the field spell still being active with the still-changed scenery, she had gotten so caught up in her joy at finally attaining victory over Euphemia and her anger over Euphemia's refusal to break down in fear and despair that she had completely forgotten about the field spell that was still in play and now, upon realising her mistake, her eyes widened in pure shock as she realised that Euphemia was going to win.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" she screamed as Euphemia placed the Dark Magician Girl card down on the middle monster space of her duel disk and the beautiful blonde spellcaster appeared on the field, doing a twirl while swinging her staff and then struck a supermodel style pose with a horizontal V sign above her eyes and her left leg bent at the knee, "YOU MUST'VE CHEATED!"

"Excuses, excuses," Euphemia sighed as she shook her head as if residing herself to the fact that Stella would not listen to reason, "Believe what you want, but in truth, I could care less what you think."

She then turned her attention to Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700) who looked as if she was awaiting the command to attack and Euphemia gave her a firm nod.

"Dark Magician Girl, end this with Dark Burning Attack," she said simply and Dark Magician Girl responded by performing another twirl and swung her staff as a pink energy ball started to form at the top and once she had completed her twirl, the energy ball went hurtling towards a rather shocked and increasingly enraged Stella.

"So you think we're just mindless, harmless holograms, huh?" Dark Magician Girl spoke as she glared at Stella, causing Euphemia and Stella's eyes to widen in shock as duel monsters holograms were clearly not meant to speak, "Well allow me to prove you wrong!"

"What the…?" Euphemia said as she noticed Dark Magician Girl turn her head to her and then give a smile, further confusing her, "Okay, I'm clearly not right in the head if I'm hallucinating that my monsters are talking."

Stella did not have a chance to react to Dark Magician Girl's statement as the energy ball she had released from her staff slammed into her and exploded, causing Stella to fly across to the duel field opposite and landing on where the duellist was supposed to stand, but luckily, the duels in that field had all finished up, so there was no one there for Stella to plough into, though she had to admit that despite the pain being only a phantom sensation and knowing that she had probably subconsciously jumped backwards when the explosion happened, she could not help be note that the attack felt a little too real for her tastes and the distance she had flown seemed a bit far for someone who had subconsciously jumped backwards.

**Euphemia (winner)**: 200 – **Stella**: 0

"And that's all she wrote," Euphemia said as she repeated the action she had performed after her victory against Dr Crowler and her first victory against Stella, "Unless you want to go again."

"Oh believe me, we will," Stella growled as the holograms all vanished and she shot the pinkette a murderous glare as she picked herself up off the ground, "We will."

"If you want rid of me that badly, then you'll have to kill me," Stella remembered Euphemia saying and looking at Euphemia, she knew that she would have a hard time breaking her spirit and reducing her to a quivering mass of paranoia.

"Believe me, next time we meet, things will be different and I can pretty much guarantee that that I'll do just that," the cruel teal-haired girl thought as she continued to glare at Euphemia, "I always wanted to know what it would feel like to actually kill someone."

A sinister smile then materialised on her face as she reached into her blazer and her fingers curled round the hilt of the knife that she had kept hidden within; the same knife she had threatened to use on Yumi when she had humiliated her as she contemplated taking it out and ramming it deep into the pinkette's heart, but decided against it for the moment. She would defeat her in a duel first and then surprise her by doing what she, herself had suggested that she do if she wanted rid of her.

"You probably think that I don't have the guts to go through with something like that," the cruel girl thought as her sadistic grin became even wider, "You probably think that I'm one of the majority who would balk at the idea of committing murder, but I'll prove you wrong and I'll enjoy seeing the look on your face when I do. I bet it'll be priceless."

* * *

><p>Up in the crowd, Yumi looked on, not entirely sure what had happened as she was still processing the information, but eventually she became rather excited as she realised that Euphemia had won.<p>

"She won, she won," she said as she jumped up and down in excitement as the crowd all started to cheer, clearly happy at the outcome.

The entire crowd cheered no matter what dorm they belonged to; even the Obelisks cheered despite the fact that it was a Slifer V Obelisk match and the Slifer was triumphant. It was indeed a good match and they were impressed. However, Stella was not that well liked, even amongst her fellow Obelisks as she clearly believed that she was above even them and many just wanted to see her lose and they did not care what dorm the person who defeated her was from. Of course, once all the excitement died down, many would undoubtedly come to the conclusion that Euphemia was just lucky or that she had somehow cheated because they still did not want to accept that a Slifer was capable of beating an Obelisk.

However, as Yumi, James, Terrance and Abigail all celebrated Euphemia's victory, Zukasu looked over at where Edward was with a serious look on his face as he knew that Euphemia's latest victory against Stella would have serious repercussions with the Harrington Family as they did not like to see one of their own lose and usually, the entire family would go after the person and their loved ones.

* * *

><p>From where he was, Edward gave Euphemia a calculating look as he played back the end of the duel, feeling nothing but a sense of complete disbelief at what he had just witnessed. Stella had been doing fine and had been completely dominating the duel and it looked like she was going to win, but then suddenly, her opponent had somehow managed to pull off a miracle and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and what was even more unbelievable was that Euphemia had only won because of Stella's Sacrificial Bypass field spell, though Stella reducing the amount of damage that Euphemia received at the start of the duel with her Giant Behemoth attacking Cybernetic Magician and Stella choosing it to be in attack mode undoubtedly played a role in her defeat, but Edward put that down to Stella wanting to prolong her opponent's suffering as well as make the duel last long enough for her to use the cards that he had given her, but unfortunately, it had ultimately led to her downfall.<p>

"No, this cannot stand," he thought as he watched Euphemia waving to the cheering crowd, "This must be avenged."

A small part of him was actually quite glad that Euphemia had won. After all, he could not stand his niece's disrespectful attitude towards him and Stella did consider herself above everyone else in existence, so he was happy that someone had managed to knock her off her high horse and send her crashing down to reality. However, the fact remained that Euphemia was not a Harrington and it was because of that fact, that the majority of his being was not pleased at Stella's defeat. This was an insult to the Harrington Family and Edward knew that Lawrence would take it as a declaration of war. Stella was not well liked; even among her own family, but the fact remained that she was one of them and that fact alone would prompt action against Euphemia. A fight with one Harrington was a fight with them all regardless of what their relationship with the person who had been "wronged" was.

Of course, for now, Edward decided that he would let Euphemia bathe in the glory of her victory and deal with her at a later date. Of the members of the Harrington Family, Edward was the most sensible and intelligent among them aside from his traitorous sister, Sophia and despite knowing that with the amount of influence his family had and how they could do pretty much anything they wanted and get away with it, Edward was under no illusions. He was dedicated to the family's cause, but he knew that they were not as untouchable as they liked to believe they were. He knew that someday their luck would probably run out with their arrogance. Sooner or later they would eventually make enemies out of someone with the resources at their disposal to fight back and though in the past, they had resorted to foul play in dealing with people like that, Edward knew that someday, they would slip up and end up the victims of foul play themselves or the target would survive and expose them and it was because of that that he decided to keep quiet about Stella's defeat and not inform his brother as he knew that Lawrence would stop at nothing till Euphemia was ruined beyond all hope of recovery and though Edward planned on ruining Euphemia himself, he would not be as reckless or as ruthless as he knew his brother would be. Compared to what Lawrence would do, his methods were more merciful in comparison.

"For now, just enjoy your time," he thought as the wheels in his head started to turn as he started thinking of some way in dealing with Euphemia, "But eventually, you will pay for daring to cross the Harrington Family."

He would leave her alone for now and bide his time; waiting for an opportunity to present itself. There was no point in trying to get her expelled right now as she had done nothing wrong. Defeating a top ranked student in a higher ranked dorm was not against the rules, so he could not act on that, but he would have Euphemia watched and as soon as she slipped up in a way that… if he plays his cards right could get her expelled.

"However, first, I need to get someone to conduct a background check on her," he thought with a nod as he decided his course of action.

* * *

><p>Back with Yumi and the others, Yumi noticed Edward's calculating look as he stared down at Euphemia and she could not help but feel nervous and then she noticed Zukasu staring at him as if pondering something.<p>

"That's Edward Harrington," he said once he realised that Yumi had noticed his look, "He's Stella's uncle as well as a member of Duel Academy's board of directors."

"Stella's uncle?" Yumi said as her worry for Euphemia increased tremendously, "Then that must mean…"

"That Euphie's unintentionally made enemies out of the entire Harrington Family," Zukasu finished for her once she trailed off, "They don't take too kindly to someone messing with one of their own; especially considering that Stella's their heiress."

* * *

><p>"That was well played, Euphemia," Chancellor Sheppard's voice boomed throughout the room as Euphemia looked up at the observation room from down in the "pit" to see Chancellor Sheppard standing at a microphone, "There has only been one other insistence where a Slifer has faced off against an Obelisk in these exams and not only did you hold your own, but you won just like the Slifer before you did. Your courage of overcoming overwhelming odds is inspiring and sets an example to us all."<p>

Euphemia could not help but blush at hearing that.

"And it is with great pleasure that I hereby promote you to Ra Yellow," Chancellor Sheppard concluded in his speech as Euphemia heard the crowd burst into cheers once again and then turned to make her way up to her friends, but saw that they had already started to make their way down to her.

"Congratulations on your victory, Euphie," Abigail said as she walked up to her and held out her hand, "And let me be the first to welcome you into the Ra Girls' Dorm."

"That was awesome, Pinky," Alicia said as she ran up to Euphemia from behind everyone else, "You beat that mean girl on her oversized touchie."

Euphemia just stared at Alicia for a few moments, completely taken aback by her sudden appearance and the fact that she had never seen her before, but immediately calmed down once she realised that she had to be Abigail's roommate that she had told her about.

"Yeah, I did, thanks… Alicia, was it?" Euphemia said as she flashed the hyperactive blonde a smile.

"Uh huh, that's right, my name's Alicia, Alicia Riverton," Alicia said with a rather fast child-like nod as she looked as happy as a toddler having a fun time at the fair, "And I've decided to call you, Pinky because you have pink hair."

"Well, thanks I guess…" Euphemia said nervously as she was clearly unsure how to respond.

"I told you so," Abigail whispered to her, "She's on a constant sugar-high and doesn't know when to shut up. Please trade your room with her."

Yumi watched the whole scene play out and let out a satisfied laugh, a bit sad that Euphemia was leaving, but at the same time, she was happy that her friend was moving up in the world.

"I knew that you wouldn't remain a Slifer long, Euphie," she thought as she continued to celebrate Euphemia's promotion, "It'll be sad to see you go, but it's for the best. I hope that we can still be friends at least."

* * *

><p>Up in the observation room, Sheppard turned to face Reina, the Ra Girls' headmistress and flashed her a heart-warming smile.<p>

"Congratulations, Reina, you get a new addition to your dorm," he said with a light chuckle.

Reina smiled back.

"Yeah, it'll be interesting having her," she replied with a nod, glad that she had someone new to work with and was hoping that she could do something to calm Abigail Richardson down as she was getting tired of hearing the bespectacled girl's continuous complaints about her roommate.

Sophia stared down at the "pit" with an unsure look on her face as she saw Stella storm off.

"This isn't over," she thought worryingly as her worry for Euphemia's well-being increased.

* * *

><p>Later that day after classes had finished, Yumi sat in at the desk in front of the poster of Slifer the Sky Dragon with a rather lonely look on her face as she moped about Euphemia's absence. Blair sat up in the top bunk and was trying to cheer her up, but unfortunately, she was not doing very well.<p>

"Okay, so Euphie's been promoted and we need a new roommate," the blue-haired girl said, but Yumi only sighed miserably, "So I suggest that we put an advert up to entice someone into replacing Euphie."

Yumi did not reply, nor did she make any indication that she had heard the pre-teen. She did not want a new roommate, she wanted Euphemia back. Sure, she did not like Euphemia destroying the alarm clock every morning and having to fruitlessly struggle to wake her up, but things just did not feel right without her. Euphemia's positive qualities far outweighed her negative qualities and Yumi knew that no matter what; people would always possess qualities that even their friends would not like and Euphemia was no exception, but what made them friends was the fact that they were able to accept those qualities as being part of each other and knowing that their other more likable qualities far outshone those negative qualities and that their negative qualities did not determine who they were.

"Okay, so I've got the perfect advertisement in mind," Blair went on, either not caring about or choosing to ignore Yumi's silence, "So how's this? "Wanted, new roommate, no one named Stella or with the surname, Harrington, also rare cards would be a bonus"."

Yumi just sighed, having heard her, but not really caring.

"Well, if you're not going to help then you can at least stop moping around," the bluenette said, finally acknowledging her failure in cheering the older girl up, "Look on the bright side, at least you won't have to worry about her destroying the alarm clock anymore."

"I just thought that she'd have at least said goodbye," Yumi finally said glumly as she believed that Euphemia had completely forgotten about her already.

"Hey what's going on?" a new and yet familiar voice came from the doorway, causing Yumi to look up in both surprise and happiness as she saw Euphemia enter the room.

"Euphie, what're you doing here?" she asked, wondering if her friend had come back to say her goodbyes and to collect a few things for her move into Ra Yellow.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on passing your field test," Euphemia said, remembering that Yumi did pass her field test; even if just barely, "And in case you've forgotten, this is my room to."

"But what about Ra Yellow?" Blair asked curiously, though she was also overjoyed that Euphemia had decided to come back.

"Oh that, I know that Ra's a whole lot better with their clean sheets, lack of cockroaches and spiffy blazers, but without you guys around, I just don't feel at home," Euphemia explained, as she just did not want to be separated from Yumi and Blair.

"I thought that I'd lost you forever!" Yumi said as tears of happiness poured out of her eyes in an overly dramatic fashion and she got up and went over to Euphemia and before she even knew what she was doing and before Euphemia could react or move to stop her, Yumi grabbed the sides of her head with her hands and delivered a huge kiss right on her friend's lips, causing both Euphemia and Blair's eyes to both widen in shock as the familiar sound of smooching could be heard aloud throughout the entire room.

"Oh my," Blair said in shock, unable to believe what she had just witnessed.

However, it was round about that time that Yumi's brain had caught up with her and her own eyes widened in horrified shock as she realised what she had just done and she suddenly found herself backing away from Euphemia with a look of horrified fear on her face, frightened that she may have destroyed her friendship with the first person who had befriended her and who did not ridicule or look down on her.

"Euphie…" she said in a panicked tone as Euphemia looked to still be in shock at having been kissed by the other girl, "I… I…. I'm sorry… I…"

"Just got caught up in the moment," Euphemia finished for her as she recovered from the shock.

Yumi could honestly say that she felt low and absolutely disgusting. She had just kissed her best friend without warning and the thing was, she had been so caught up in her own happiness at the fact that Euphemia was staying with them that her body had just acted on its own before she knew what she was doing and before she could stop herself. She believed that Euphemia would now hate her for what she had done. Kissing between people of the same gender was not uncommon, though it was mainly confined to family members and even then, they did not kiss each other on the lips like she had done with Euphemia. She had, in effect, stolen Euphemia's first kiss and well as ruined her own and she believed that Euphemia was fuming furiously as she believed that she would want nothing to do with her now. She believed that Euphemia would now think that she was a freak; not that she was against anyone involved in those sorts of relationships since people were who they were, but she believed that Euphemia was not into that sort of thing; especially since she seemed drawn to Zukasu and Yumi had to say that she did not consider herself to swing that way.

"Euphie… please…" she begged as she took a cautious step towards the pinkette, clearly having not heard her comment, "I… I didn't mean to…"

Euphemia walked towards the Japanese girl and raised her hand and Yumi shut her eyes and braced herself for what she believed would be a well-deserved slap to her cheek and Euphemia's hand did make contact with her cheek, but instead of a brief contact followed by stinging pain, Euphemia's hand just stayed there, surprising Yumi as her friend's hand remained on her cheek, sharing its warmth in an a rather comforting manner. Yumi slowly and rather cautiously opened her eyes to find Euphemia smiling at her, much to her confusion.

"I know," Euphemia said in a warm, comforting tone, reminding Yumi of the girl she had met back at the Entrance Exams as Euphemia once again seemed to give of this gentle calming aura that caused the Japanese brunette to relax, "You just got so caught up in the moment that you acted without realising what you were doing. I understand, things like that can happen."

"So, we're still friends then?" Yumi asked hopefully.

"Of course we're still friends, silly," Euphemia laughed as she dismissed the incident, knowing that Yumi had indeed acted due to her happiness overwhelming her.

"Oh, Euphie…!" Yumi said as she ran towards her friend and wrapped her arms round her, this time giving her a hug as tears continued to stream down her face.

"Hey, hey, hold up, you're soaking my jacket," Euphemia protested as she tried to push Yumi away.

"Oh please, just let me hug you, it's not like kissing you," Yumi said as she fought back against Euphemia's hands.

"It's not the hugs or the possibility of you kissing me again; it's the waterworks," Euphemia replied as she continued to push against Yumi's advance, "Oh well, at least stains don't show up as much on red as opposed to yellow."

Blair watched the scene unfold and then let out a laugh of content happiness, glad that things were more or less, back to normal.

"Though with Yumi accidentally kissing her and Euphie almost doing the same thing this morning, I have to say that it proves that what goes around comes around," she thought as she watched the antics of the two older girls' horseplay.

"Okay, you can let go now, Yumi," Euphemia laughed as she still struggled to keep Yumi at bay.

"Never," Yumi declared jokingly.

* * *

><p>Outside, not that far away, Jaden stood behind the two air vents near the Slifer Dorm that led to the academy's basement as he listened to the commotion from inside his old room. He had to admit that he rather missed being in the room as he had been there for the entire three years he had been at the academy. He had first been assigned the room with his friend Syrus and for the first year, they had shared it with a boy called Chumley Huffington, who left near the end of his first year when Pegasus took him on as a card designer and for a while it was just him and Syrus until Tyranno Hassleberry entered the picture and he moved in with them despite being a Ra Yellow and Syrus had also chosen to stay after he was promoted to Ra Yellow and Jaden remembered how Syrus and Hassleberry would often fight over who was his best friend and Syrus had been like a brother who was so used to spending time with his sibling that when that sibling made a new friend; namely him befriending Hassleberry, Syrus had reacted rather jealously and felt that his status in Jaden's life was under threat. However, Hassleberry had just invited himself into the room after Jaden defeated him in a duel when he and a group of Ras had stolen duel disks from other students after defeating them in duels. After that, things went smoothly until after the whole alternative dimension incident when Jaden ended up; not just being the room's only occupant, but the only student who was still in Slifer as the other Slifers had all been promoted.<p>

"Good times," he said to himself as he thought back on the events of the day and how closely they mirrored his own Promotional Exam experience.

He remembered how Syrus had an "all-night Slifer séance" like Yumi and how he had been late from sleeping in and helping Miss Dorothy. He also remembered when he and Syrus reached the Card Shack after the written exams were over how all of the best cards had already gone, though as far as his written exam had gone, he had just fallen asleep after just putting in short-worded answers; not really caring if they were right or wrong as he just did not see how written work was of any importance in the world of Duel Monsters. He believed that duelling was everything and that all that written work was just a big waste of time and had only gone to Duel Academy in search of really good competition. Anyway, he had met Miss Dorothy again and was surprised to discover that she was the owner of the Card Shack and she had given him a pack that she had managed to hide from everyone else and he ended up duelling an Obelisk who had dominated the duel until he had used the card that Miss Dorothy had given him to turn the duel around and then win in his next turn and then he was promoted to Ra Yellow, but he turned the promotion down to be with his friends.

Euphemia's day had been similar, though unlike him, when Yumi tried to wake her up, she had ended up trying to kiss her mistaking her for a dream version of Suzaku. When Syrus tried to wake him up, he had unwittingly punched him in the face while declaring that he had played a trap card as he had been dreaming that he was duelling. The next difference was that Euphemia had tried and managed to complete her written test and Euphemia was not all that bothered about the shipment of rare cards, though she had been tempted with possibility of rare spellcaster cards.

"She's definitely not me, that's for sure, but I wouldn't have it any other way," he said to himself aloud, "I'd really be miffed if she ended up being a female carbon-copy of me."

He had seen Euphemia's duel against Stella and noted how similar it had been to his duel against Chazz. Like Chazz, Stella had been dominating the duel and like him, Euphemia had managed to turn the duel around and then win on her next turn thanks to a card that Miss Dorothy had given her and by an amazing coincidence, the card had been almost identical to the card that Miss Dorothy had given him; Transcendent Wings for his Winged Kuriboh and Euphemia had been given Transcendent Horns, which was the same as Transcendent Wings, only it was for Horned Kuriboh and gave Horned Kuriboh the same ability that Transcendent Wings gave Winged Kuriboh, though unlike his duel, Euphemia could have won the duel during Stella's last battle phase had Stella not played her trap and Euphemia was only able to summon Dark Magician Girl due to the effect of Stella's field spell and that won her the duel. Stella was like Chazz in some respects. She had deliberately prolonged the duel like Chazz had done with him to prolong his suffering. He remembered when Chazz had two monsters out on the field, VW Tiger Catapult and XYZ Dragon Cannon. He could have used those two monsters to win the duel right then and there since Jaden only had one monster on the field in defence mode and both monsters had more than enough attack points needed to drop his life points to zero on the second attack , but instead, he had decided to merge them into the VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon. By contrast, Stella's Giant Behemoth monster had a piercing effect and the difference in points that was usually dealt as damage was doubled and since Cybernetic Magician's defence points paled in comparison to its attack points, Stella could have done a lot more damage to Euphemia's life points and dropped them down to six hundred if she had destroyed Cybernetic Magician while he was in defence mode and probably would have ended up winning the duel, but instead, she had wanted Euphemia to suffer and it cost her.

Also thinking back on the events of the day, he remembered how some of the things said had been similar… and in some cases, identical to what had been said back when he had taken those exams, like Euphemia commenting on having a soft spot for sweet old ladies; Jaden remembered telling Chazz the exact same thing and with the exact same words.

"Gee, what a coincidence," he said to himself as some of those things were so coincidental that it was creepy, "Oh well, at least after I returned to the Slifer Dorm, Syrus didn't accidentally kiss me."

That much was true; Syrus had been overwhelmed with happiness when he returned and told him why he returned, but Syrus did not accidentally kiss him; he just immediately tried to hug him and he tried to stop him because he did not want Syrus's tears staining his blazer, which was what Euphemia was doing with Yumi right now for the exact same reason and he found it ironic that Yumi had ended up kissing the pinkette, albeit by mistake as Euphemia had almost made that same mistake earlier in the morning when Yumi tried to wake her up.

"Talk about what goes around comes around," he said with a laugh, "Though two girls kissing one another doesn't sound all that bad."

He then let out a laugh as he started to fantasise about Euphemia and Yumi, giving into a rather perverted part of himself, but almost immediately shook his head as he quashed those fantasies, remembering that he still had a job to do. Since Zukasu had defeated Stella and Jaden found out about the existence of Nelkal, things had been relatively quiet. He had not heard from Axel since that night, though he was not alarmed. After all, background checks tended to mostly take some time and Nelkal was at North Academy. Since that night, everything had been quiet, though Zukasu did have his duel disk confiscated and Jaden had informed Chancellor Sheppard that Kaiba Corp had shut down Zukasu's duel disk and that his old duel disk only had his duel at the Entrance Exams logged in its history database. Needless to say, Chancellor Sheppard had been surprised and what Jaden had told him of his duel disk being shut down had been confirmed when the Duel Academy technicians had studied it, but they could not explain how Zukasu had been able to continue the duel despite his duel disk being shut down, so Duel Academy had secretly swapped his old duel disk with a new one and gave it back to him, claiming that it was his old disk while they had sent his old disk back to Kaiba Corp so they could examine it in case Zukasu had managed to somehow managed to tamper with its shut down mechanism, but a few days later, they reported back saying that nothing was wrong. It was peculiar, but not surprising to him. He did not expect them to find anything out of the ordinary, though it was still worth a shot, but at the moment, he decided to just leave it be for now and wait till he heard from Axel before making his next move.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

It's night on Duel Academy Island and a girl wearing a blue and black scuba-diving suit walks onto the beach on the east part of the island.

"_Wow, that was close, in truth I thought Stella had me that time," Euphemia says._

"_Are you sure you're not mad at my for kissing you?" Yumi asks a bit fearfully, "I swear that it was an accident!"_

"_Calm down, I know that," Euphemia says as she tries to assure her friend that she's not mad._

Eileen and Hailey are standing nervously outside Stella's room as they hear the sounds of objects being thrown against walls and Stella's loud screaming as she vents her rage.

"_Gee, maybe we shouldn't bother Stella for a while," Eileen suggests._

"_Right," Hailey says simply._

Eileen and Hailey both then run off in opposite directions, deciding to leave Stella alone and hide.

The next day, Hassleberry arrives at the Slifer Dorm to check up on Euphemia.

"_Hey there, so how's Private Euphie doin'?" Hassleberry asks._

"_You do realise that you're not in the military, don't you?" Yumi says in a rather unimpressed tone._

The girl in the scuba-diving suit is spying on Euphemia, Yumi, Blair, Hassleberry, Zukasu, James, Terrance and Abigail as they hang out.

"_Why do I get the feeling that we're being watched?" Yumi says feeling uncomfortable._

"_Oh you're just imagining things," Euphemia says dismissively, "I highly doubt that Stella will coming after me this soon after her latest defeat."_

"_Speaking of Stella, I don't think you should've told her that she'd have to kill you to get rid of you because she's crazy enough to actually do it," Zukasu warns in a concerned tone._

That night, Abigail, Terrance and James are walking back to the Ra Yellow Dorm when Abigail notices something amiss in the forest and tells the two boys to go on ahead.

"_Why do you say that, Zukasu?" Euphemia asks curiously, "Surely she's not that crazy. I make most people balk at the idea of murdering those they hate."_

"_In case you've forgotten, Stella's not most people," Yumi says in a frightful tone, concerned that Euphemia's not taking Stella as seriously as she should._

The girl in the scuba-diving suit; upon realising that she's been spotted makes a run for it and Abigail gives chase.

"_Hey you get back here!" Abigail says._

"_Oh crap, busted," the girl says fearfully, "Though this could work for me."_

Once reaching a clearing in the forest, the girl stops, causing Abigail to stop once she catches up with her.

"_Okay, just who are you and why are you snooping around?" Abigail demands._

"_My, aren't you a beautiful one?" the girl said in what Abigail takes for a seductive tone._

"_Excuse me?" Abigail says, feeling a bit uncomfortable._

Abigail confronts the girl, who produces a duel disk from a tight waterproof bag that she has on her person.

"_I suppose you want to duel, huh?" Abigail says with a sigh._

"_Uh huh, my name is Amanda Ribbets and for the moment, that's all you need to know," the girl says simply._

Abigail, who has her duel disk on her accepts the girl, Amanda's challenge.

"GAME ON!" they both shout in unison.

**Abigail**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

"_Okay, you're on," Abigail says sternly, "But if I win, you're gonna talk."_

"_I'll talk when the duel concludes regardless of the outcome," Amanda says with a shrug, "After all, I wasn't intending on duelling anyone, but it'll work out for me in the end regardless."_

"_What's that?" Abigail says in surprise._

Abigail loses the duel and is rendered unconscious after the force of the last attack sends her into a tree and Amanda stands over her.

_"Now you're mine for the time being," Amanda says excitedly, "And I can guarantee you that you'll help me get what I want one way or another."_

Back at the Slifer Dorm, Euphemia suddenly gets a feeling that something is wrong.

Yumi convinces her that she's probably just jumpy from defeating Stella and that Stella won't retaliate so soon.

"_Next time: Academy Intruder part 1," Euphemia says, "Why do I get the feeling that something is off?"_

"_It's probably just jitters after defeating Stella, but I doubt that she'll retaliate so soon after her defeat," Yumi says in an effort to calm her._

James and Terrance are asleep in their beds, unaware that the latter's sister is at the mercy of an intruder.

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Omega Weapon

**Attribute** – Dark

**Type** – Fiend/Effect

**Level** – 10

**ATK/DEF** – 4000/4000

**Info** – This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing 1 Ultima Weapon. When this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, inflict damage to your opponent equal to double the ATK of the destroyed monster.

"_That card is so badass, I must have it," Jaden says excitedly._

"_Well you can't have it," the author says simply, "You'll need Ultima Weapon in order to summon it and you'll need the Ultima Ritual spell card in order to summon Ultima Weapon to the field and they're Stella's cards, so you can't have them."_

"_Spoil sport," Jaden pouts, "That card is so rad."_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Phew, another chapter finished, finally. It took me over a week to finish this chapter. Sorry for the delay, but when I came back from my four-city tour vacation, I just didn't have the motivation to write and my mind was being distracted by other things and ideas. Anyway, if Marianne seems a bit OOC, I apologise, but that's just my own personal opinion on Marianne. She seems like a female Sosuke Aizen to me in that at first, we all thought that she was a kind and caring woman before learning that she was actually a ruthless co-conspirator of Charles and was only assassinated because of petty jealousy. Aizen was thought to be a kind and caring man before he was revealed to be a dangerous villain who had been secretly plotting Soul Society's downfall for a little over a century, so Marianne and Aizen go in the "Wolf in sheep's clothing" category of villains for me. I suppose that I may be bashing Marianne a bit, which is a rarity for me as I tend not to bash female characters, but Marianne's reasons for joining Charles and V.V. were not really explained, unless I missed something, so I decided to come up with the idea of Marianne's past as a means of explaining why she joined with Charles in the first place and I feel that perhaps Marianne may have felt a bit of animosity towards her children since they were happy and Marianne had gotten so caught up in her anger over not being made welcome among the nobility that she became jealous and failed to realise that if she only let go of her anger, she'd have found happiness to.


	7. Academy Intruder part 1

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Academy Intruder part 1**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist) and up until 29th/30th March 2011, 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names). Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

* * *

><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden). Also, this chapter may have some hints of what could be interpreted as yuri (but nothing too intimate and it will be one-sided)

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><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – As the news of Euphemia's body's disappearance continues to plaque the minds of many in the Code Geass World, Vincent zi Britannia a.k.a. V.V. in not all that concerned like his brother. Believing that Charles is being overly paranoid, V.V. muses on the events that have transpired up till now and is all too aware that Euphemia is alive somewhere, as her consciousness is notably missing from the World's Collective Subconscious, though he's not all that concerned due to Euphemia's overall nature and the fact that she's nowhere to be found on the Earth, however he is curious as to her whereabouts and just how her mysterious benefactor managed to snatch her body and just what they have planned. Meanwhile in the aftermath of the Promotional Exams on Duel Academy Island in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World, things seem to be settling down once again as Stella fumes over her latest defeat. However, it seems that all is not well as an intruder has sneaked onto the island for some unknown purpose and Abigail happens to notice her presence. Just who is this mysterious girl and why is she on the island? Abigail's determined to find out as she is roped into a duel with the intruder, but can she shake of the girl, Amanda's flirtatious antics and just how does Amanda intend to use Abigail in whatever scheme she's planning?

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><p><strong>Code Geass World – Tengger Desert, Mongolia, Chinese Federation, Geass Order Base<strong>

V.V., formerly Vincent zi Britannia, the older twin brother of Charles zi Britannia sat in the throne room of one of the buildings in the underground city. Everything was quiet and uneventful outside as the eerie purple-pink glow from the nearby Thought Elevator illuminated the underground cavern that the city was built in. Despite being underground, the city itself looked like any other modern-day city complete with streetlights, roadways and streets, ornate buildings and it even had its very own underground train network. However, since the city was underground, it existed in perpetual darkness with the only non-street-lighted light source coming from the Thought Elevator. This was one of many bases that the Geass Order or Geass Cult or even Geass Directorate owned and it was bases like this that the immortal child felt most at peace. V.V. preferred dark places as opposed to places with lots of light. He did not know what it was that made him this way, it was just the way he was. Something about the dark made him feel at ease as he pondered on events that had happened until three months ago when the terrorist known as Zero had rallied the people of "Area Eleven" behind him and convinced them to rise up in rebellion after the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan collapsed due to Euphemia apparently ordering a massacre. However, V.V. knew the truth. Yes, there was a massacre, but Euphemia had not ordered it of her own freewill; Zero a.k.a. Lelouch vi Britannia had accidentally forced Euphemia into carrying the massacre out while he was flaunting his ego and had simply conjured up all those lies afterwards to hide the truth, but if that was not enough; during the rebellion, which had come to be known as the Black Rebellion, Euphemia's dead body had somehow gone missing on board the Avalon, Prince Schneizel's personal flagship while it had still been in the air and the thing was; nothing had been noticed either approaching or leaving the Avalon while it was up in the air.

Anyway, V.V. could not help but think back to before everything changed; back to before he received his Code and entered into a contract with his brother. V.V. or Vincent as he had been known back then had been born into the Britannian Imperial Family along with his brother to Petunia zi Britannia and Sedgwick je Britannia, 92nd Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire. However, their childhood was marred by the constant, seemingly never-ending in-fighting in the Imperial Family over succession to the throne. It was due to Britannia's rhetoric of Social Darwinism; that life itself was one big constant struggle to survive and the strong would rise and crush the weak. It was a time when deceptions and back-stabbings were commonplace and most of those who did manage to claim the throne had more or less, very short reigns; the shortest of which came to an end in just under a month. This period had become known as the Emblem of Blood, which had started with the assassination of Emperor Sedgwick when Vincent and Charles had both just turned eight. No one had ever owned up to the assassination, but since then, the princes and princesses all started to fight among themselves over who succeeded him and many of the nobles also tried to make grabs for power by trying to marry their sons and daughters into the Imperial Family. Two years into the Emblem of Blood, Petunia, Vincent and Charles's mother and perhaps the only woman Vincent had ever loved had been murdered when one of the other nobles had dropped a carriage on her right in front of them; severely traumatising them and it was all because her children had been in line for succession to the throne.

"Ah yes, the only woman I was ever close to was taken from me and why…?" the present-day V.V. mused to himself in an eerily cheerful tone, though the undertone suggested that he was anything but cheerful, "Because Charles and I had gained claims to the throne."

His eyes burned with a fierce hatred as he remembered that day despite his expression remaining calm and collected. He may look like a normal everyday ten-year-old boy, but his appearance only served to mask his true nature for within the ageless body was the soul of someone far older, far older and more dangerous than anyone could ever dream and many of those who had seen his true nature usually did not live long enough to tell the tale.

Anyway, afterwards, the two boys had gone to live with some of their mother's relatives, who pretty much ignored them, but sheltered them nonetheless since it was possible that they would be killed due to their claims to the throne despite only being children, but then one day, the twins had met an individual by the name of V.V.; the original V.V. and once they explained their problems to him, he had told them about his Code and how it made him immortal and he also explained the power of Geass, the Power of the Kings and how he could give normal people this power, but only in exchange for helping him fulfil his greatest wish. Charles had been sceptical at first, but Vincent had been more open minded and he agreed to V.V.'s contract with V.V. explaining that each Geass power was different from person to person and that the Geass power usually manifested itself based on that person's inner desires. It was also through the original V.V. that Vincent and Charles had come to know about the Ragnarök Connection, the Sword of Akasha and the Geass Order; the former two rumoured to be a failed experiment of an ancient civilisation and the latter an organisation that had been around for so long that its origins had long since become lost in history as no one remembered just who had founded it.

However, the purpose of the Geass Order was clear; to produce and study Geass Users and it was usually headed by one Code-Bearer. Basically its role was to regulate and control the power of Geass and it had been independent of all nations both past and present; answering to no one but themselves. However, it was also a very cautious organisation and never remained in one place for too long. The Geass Order was a nomadic organisation that went from one place to another; closely guarding their secrets, though their bases never tended to be that far from the Thought Elevators that surrounded the globe, though a change in leadership also meritted moving to another base. The Geass Order was strict about its secrets and anyone who happened to come across one of their bases while they were occupying the area; they were either recruited or killed depending on their answer. Each intruder was given the offer to join and their fate was dependant on their answer; those who agreed were spared and entered a contract with the Code-Bearer in charge or recruited to the science division that studied Geass and those who refused were killed to maintain the organisation's secrecy.

Anyway, eventually when Vincent's Geass evolved to the point where it had become visible in both his eyes, V.V. had revealed the truth about the Geass and the Code; that he could now trade the Geass for the Code and that his wish had been to die. V.V. explained that once he passed his Code on, he would lose his immortality and become a normal human again and would be able to die. Needless to say, Vincent took the Code, becoming the new V.V. and then Charles, who by this time had become convinced that what the original V.V. had told him was real entered into a contract with his brother; only the wish in this contract was to revive the Ragnarök Connection and rid the world of its lies, since the original V.V. had explained that the Sword of Akasha's role was to slay the gods themselves and bring about the Ragnarök Connection in which the dead and the living would all merge into one single entity. According to the original V.V., masks would vanish and everyone would be able to see everyone else for what they really were.

"Yes, that much is true," the ageless child continued to muse, "No one will be able to hide their true colours any longer once the Ragnarök Connection is complete."

After all, lies had been a key part in the Emblem of Blood and it was lies that had gotten Petunia killed. The noble responsible for her death had been thought to have been one of her closest friends, but Petunia had been deceived. The noble had been planning her demise from the beginning. He had simply approached her under the guise of friendship and had worked to earn her trust and then when Petunia had let her guard down, he and his wife had both shown their true colours and murdered her. It had left deep emotionally scars on both her children and sick of all the lies everyone was telling one another all just so they could claim the Britannian throne for themselves, they both had made a pact to bring about the Ragnarök Connection and also to never lie to one another.

"But unfortunately, due to outside interference I was forced to break that vow," V.V. thought as a sneer materialised on his face and he felt his anger rage from within his heart as he remembered the one who had gotten between him and his brother and because of her, he had been forced to go back on his promise to never lie to Charles.

After they had both made their pact, they had lain in wait for decades, waiting for their opportunity to strike, though to V.V.'s initial surprise, Charles continued to age while he remained in the body of a child. He knew that it was the Code. The Code practically froze its host's aging process. The host would age no further than the day they received the Code, but as Charles got older, they had both finally decided to make their move; first seizing control of the Geass Order and aligning its allegiance with Britannia, though the Emperor was not aware of this, but fortunately Charles had managed to gain good favour with him. The plan was for Charles to eliminate all contenders to the throne before eliminating the Emperor himself and then replace him and it was during that campaign that Charles had met her, Marianne Lamperouge, a commoner soldier who had originally been assigned to provide him protection on a diplomatic venture and who was working towards proving that commoners could be just as good, if not better than the upper classes and for Charles, it had been love at first sight. It was due to Charles and Marianne getting in his good favour that Marianne had been awarded the title, Knight of Six among the Knights of the Round, the twelve strongest knights in Britannia due to her phenomenal skills as a soldier and Knightmare Frame pilot; not that V.V. particularly cared or anything. He was only interested in fulfilling his and Charles's dream and Marianne's status meant nothing to him.

At first, he had completely dismissed Charles's attraction to Marianne as mundane as he believed that Charles saw Marianne as a side-venture. Her skills were so great that she could have become Knight of One, but her status as a commoner had prevented that and V.V. had noticed how even before marrying into the Imperial Family that the nobility clearly hated her guts and that was just because of her skills because she had proven herself more skilled than many of them and what made it worse for the nobles was that Marianne always seemed to have this deceptively kind and caring smile permanently plastered on her face and she had been very much aware of the nobles' resentment towards her, but her solution to the problem seemed to just rub her superiority over them in their faces and those nobles who dared voice their opinions of her to her face… Marianne had had them and their entire families murdered and their properties destroyed and even though everyone else knew that she was to blame for those mysterious happenings, they could not prove it and it helped cement the nobility's fear of Marianne and it only served to further impress Charles.

As time went on, V.V. found that Marianne was slowly becoming more and more of a thorn in his and Charles's side as Charles continued to spend more and more time with her and V.V. feared that he was losing focus on their overall goal and he was even more infuriated to learn that Charles had told Marianne about the plan and introduced her to him, though he had been nice and polite and accepted her and then he learned that Marianne was in the company of another Code-Bearer, a girl known as C.C. and she also agreed to lend a hand, though V.V. felt disgusted at her stoic uncaring attitude since he knew that she had only agreed to help out of sheer boredom and really did not care whether the plan succeeded or not and was only helping them because she had nothing better to do. Anyway, with Marianne's help, Charles had managed to eliminate all other contenders to the throne and disposed of the previous Emperor before taking his place and even made Marianne one of his many wives; much to V.V.'s displeasure as he found his tolerance of Marianne diminishing and what was worse, Marianne seemed to be all too aware of it. He remembered how he shot her glares when he believed she was not looking and how she would retaliate with her usual smile as if rubbing the fact that she was stealing Charles from him in his face and it only served to get worse when Marianne bore Charles children, which he believed would only take even more of Charles's time away from him.

As for Charles's performance as Emperor, he put on a good show as well as put an end to the Emblem of Blood as he had eliminated anyone who could potentially oppose him. He constantly reinforced Britannia's Social Darwinism rhetoric and was quite convincing. After all, when the time came for them to acquire all the Thought Elevators throughout the world, such rhetoric would make for a good smokescreen. It definitely kept everyone away from investigating what he was really up to as Charles had proved himself to be a very frightening man that few would dare cross. However, truth be told, Charles was really a hypocrite. He did not really believe in what he was saying and in truth, he despised the rhetoric he was promoting. After all, the same rhetoric had been responsible for their mother's death, but for the moment it was a rather convenient excuse to use as a pretext for the future expansion that would help them acquire the Thought Elevators that were needed for the Ragnarök Connection.

"Ironic, isn't it," V.V. chuckled to himself as he briefly brought himself back to reality, speaking to no one in particular, "We're on a campaign to eradicate the world's lies and yet, in order to do that, we must embrace those same lies be lying to the masses."

The irony in that was not lost to him; that in order to eradicate lies, they had to lie themselves. It was like the fight fire with fire ideology only in this case, it was fight lies with lies. Anyway, V.V. remembered how he had lied to Charles about not knowing anything about Marianne's assassination. Anyway, before that, Marianne's presence had been getting to the point where she was becoming intolerable and after looking into past leaders and how they fell from grace, he had come to the conclusion that women were the downfall of men; that all men failed in their hopes and dreams because of women and women convinced them to give up on them, which was what he feared Marianne was doing to Charles, though it was just his own jealousy blinding his judgement. However, he finally decided to do away with her and then have her daughter, Nunnally placed at the scene as a witness and it worked. He had called Marianne to the lobby of the Aries Villa one night for a meeting and had requested that Marianne withdrew security, which she had done; apparently even if she had been aware of his animosity towards her, she had clearly underestimated him, believing him to be just the same as those nobles she constantly irked with her smile. However, two of her bodyguards had returned out of concern and then he acted while Marianne was distracted, though he did notice a pink-haired girl about Nunnally's age having apparently witnessed the incident, but paid her no mind. After all, she was just a child and given that V.V. himself looked like a child, he figured that no one would believe her and it seemed that he was right since the girl, Anya Alstreim who had taken Marianne's old position as the Knight of Six had obviously been so traumatised that she had blocked the memories from her mind. Afterwards, he had covered it up and used Nunnally as a witness and it had left her crippled and blind; blind due to psychological trauma, at least that's what everyone believed, but V.V. knew that Charles had used his own Geass on her to make her that way, which piqued his curiosity, but it also worked to his advantage as it had wiped any memories of her having possibly seen him as he had been the one who had fired the gun, though he was tempted to kill Nunnally and her brother Lelouch, just for good measure, but unfortunately, Charles had sent them both to Japan as bargaining chips before the invasion, which had piqued the immortal child's curiosity as he had already been planning on invading Japan before he even considered sending Lelouch and Nunnally there.

However, once the invasion had started both, Lelouch and Nunnally had been declared dead. In fact, Charles had even announced that they were both dead on live national television even before the invasion force had even set foot on Japanese soil. Of course, after hearing Lelouch and Charles's exchanges before Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to Japan, Charles had told Lelouch that he was dead to him, so he figured that it was not all that surprising. However, after Marianne's funeral, V.V. had decided to eradicate Marianne's memory from the world and had systematically had every single person that she had socialised with aside from those who hated her killed. He hunted them all down and killed them from those of her family to even just people whom she had met and done business with once. The only people who were still alive were Charles, Bismarck Waldstein, the current Knight of One, Cornelia, whom he knew had idolised Marianne Lelouch, Nunnally and the Ashford Family, who had fled to Japan after Marianne's assassination had caused their fall from grace due to their support of her. Of course, he did not kill them all at once, he waited a while between each kill and then they would either be the victim of an accident, like a baker that Marianne was friends with; how he and his entire family perished when their bakery burnt down after someone had seemingly forgotten to turn one of the ovens off or die of natural causes like Marianne's father who had seemingly died peacefully in his sleep from old age. Heck even Cornelia and Euphemia's mother, Rochelle had become a victim of his quest, though it had been arranged to look like an accident during a horse-riding session in which the horse was spooked by a snake and she fell off, breaking her neck against a rock that had been behind her. Unfortunately, he could not get at Cornelia or Euphemia because Cornelia had constantly been away from Pendragon since Marianne's funeral and no matter where she went, she had always taken Euphemia with her.

Anyway, despite having been declared dead, Lelouch and Nunnally had both contacted the Ashford Family, one of the few noble families who had not despised Marianne and who supported her; though since her assassination, they had fallen into disgrace and Lelouch had faked their deaths. He knew this because Charles had told him since he was somehow in contact with C.C., who had left after Marianne's assassination. Since meeting C.C., V.V. had allowed her to assume control of the Geass Order as his successor, but after she left, he had been forced to retake his old position. How Charles was keeping in contact with C.C., the ageless child had no idea, but Charles had decided to make use of Lelouch and his hatred of Britannia. According to Charles, Lelouch starting a war would inevitably divert everyone's attention away from him and then he would have more freedom to act towards the completion of the Ragnarök Connection.

"An ingenious plan, Charles, but it leaves too much to chance," V.V. said to himself, "He could potentially be useful, but his stance also makes him too much of a threat. Have you ever considered the possibility that your plan to make him hate you could work too well?"

He did see the logic in Charles's plan, but he also saw the potential drawbacks, though he supposed that he was just being bias due to his hatred of Marianne and the fact that Lelouch was her child, but he knew that Lelouch could potentially prove to be a threat and if Lelouch discovered the truth, V.V. doubted that he would cooperate like Charles initially believed. No, Lelouch just would not understand; this much V.V. knew and despite Lelouch's success in diverting the people's attention away from the Ragnarök Connection, the cons of his continued existence far outweighed the pros. He had studied Lelouch's character by analysing him in his Zero persona. It was why he had transported both Lelouch and Suzaku Kururugi to Kamine Island from Shikine Island during the Black Knights' attack there, though Euphemia and that Black Knight girl had gotten in the way and ended up being transported as well. He had been interested in Lelouch and what he would do and Suzaku Kururugi had also piqued his interest as he seemed somewhat sensitive to the power of Geass, though whether it was natural or a side-effect of what had happened to him back at Narita when C.C. used her Shock Images to save Lelouch from him was a mystery.

In any case, Lelouch as Zero and his vendetta against Britannia had worked. Hardly anyone paid attention to Charles, though he knew that Schneizel and Clovis's old army general, Bartley Aspirus clearly suspected something as they had been on Kamine Island at the same time as Zero, Suzaku, Euphemia and the other girl and V.V. recalled overhearing Bartley making the statement that he figured that the ruins on Kamine Island had been the real reason behind the invasion of Japan and how had had researched and discovered other ruins and how most of them were under Imperial Control and most of them resided in recently conquered "areas" leading him to believe that the ruins were the true reason behind Britannia's recent expansion, which was true. The ruins in question was where the Thought Elevators resided and V.V. vowed that he would deal with Bartley when the time was right and he would also deal with Cornelia, who he knew was somewhere in the Chinese Federation and was hunting the Geass Order down in order to clear her sister's name.

"But unfortunately for you my dear niece, the huntress has become the hunted," he chuckled to himself as he remembered the reason why Cornelia was hunting him down, "And what would your reaction be if you had discovered that I had been the one to gunned down your precious idol as well as the fact that she was not as sweet and kind as she had portrayed herself and also the fact that I had your mother dealt with due to her association with said idol."

When he learned that Euphemia had declared the formation of the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan, he had expressed his curiosity as he saw it as a means of diverting attention away from Kamine Island as the military had become somewhat curious due to the recent events there. Charles had surprisingly agreed to it on the condition that Euphemia renounced her claim to the throne, which she did without hesitation, much to V.V.'s surprise. However during the opening ceremony of the SAZ, Zero had appeared and requested an audience with Euphemia alone and a while after they had both entered the G-1 Base, Euphemia had emerged with Zero nowhere in sight and then ordered the soldiers to kill the Japanese and started the massacre for which she would be remembered as Princess Massacre. However, V.V. had known that it had been a result of Lelouch's Geass. He had determined how his Geass worked through studying those who had apparently helped him and then claimed that they did not remember doing so. Lelouch's power was the power of Absolute Obedience, which allowed him to bend others to his will and he learned from C.C. that Lelouch had become a victim of what was known as Geass Runaway, which occurred when someone continuously used their Geass and it became so powerful that it automatically activated and remained activate and leaving the user unable to deactivate it, though he knew that Lelouch's mental state also played a factor as the ability to control a Geass and prevent it from "running away" also depended on the user's mental stability and V.V. knew Lelouch did not agree with Euphemia's plan, but the fact that Euphemia was the only one of his half-siblings that he truly cared about and the fact that she now stood in his way had no doubt caused him to become conflicted on what to do and it had caused his mental state to deteriorate, but before learning that, he had believed that Lelouch had done it deliberately, which surprised him; not that he particularly cared, but he never would have dreamed that Lelouch would be willing to sacrifice all those innocents just to discredit one person and motivate the survivors into joining him.

Anyway, how it occurred did not matter to him, once Lelouch had rallied the angry survivors of the SAZ behind him, Charles had sent him to retrieve Nunnally, though he had been tempted to kill her as by the time he had reached Ashford Academy, the Black Knights had already occupied it and it would have been easy to have framed them for Nunnally's murder, but somehow, he had gotten the feeling that Charles would not have believed him if he came back empty-handed with that claim, so he did what Charles had wanted, but before that, he had paid a visit to Suzaku Kururugi in board the Avalon, who was still mourning Euphemia's demise and told him the "truth" about the massacre, though back then, it had been before learning about Lelouch's Geass going into Runaway Mode and he really did believe that that was the truth and he had seen Euphemia's body and confirmed that she was definitely dead.

"Which brings me to the next point on how it managed to disappear," the immortal child pondered as he remembered hearing how it had somehow vanished without a trace after Suzaku had left to go hunt Zero down. It was indeed a mystery even to him.

Apparently, the room's surveillance camera had encountered a glitch that somehow managed to right itself, but when it did, the body was gone, though the doctor and nurse that had seen to Euphemia had apparently entered and were both unconscious on the floor. It was clear that they had both come in and interrupted the body snatcher and the body snatcher had incapacitated them. However they had both awoke hours later feeling fine, but with no memories of what they had seen and V.V. knew that to be the truth as Suzaku had practically thrashed the doctor to within an inch of his life and he still maintained his story, though it was clear to V.V. that Suzaku clearly did not care and just beat him up anyway. However, what none of them knew was that the fault to the surveillance camera before the body's disappearance was not the first "fault" that it had encountered as V.V. had used a jamming device hidden on his person while he had visited Suzaku to temporarily scramble the camera's electronics, but since when he left, everything was normal, no one worried over it, which was possibly why they shrugged off the second "fault". However, unlike the first time, when the camera started to function normally, the people in the Avalon's security room had discovered Euphemia's body missing.

It intrigued him how anyone managed to pull it off. The Avalon had been airborne the entire time and V.V. knew that it would have been able to have detected anything approaching it and nothing could have escaped without being noticed. He knew that it had to be the work of the supernatural. There was no other explanation. Someone must have teleported on board like he had done, though whoever did had to have been someone who was clearly a lot older than he, himself looked. V.V. knew that he could not have pulled it off as he had been alone when he had gone to the Avalon and despite his immortality, he had not been awarded with super strength and he just would not have been able to have lifted Euphemia's body in order to move it and he was surprised when Charles, who was being increasingly paranoid over the body's disappearance, fearing that someone was plotting against them and was trying to stop them from fulfilling the Ragnarök Connection did not suspect him as he did have the power of teleportation, albeit on a limited scale.

"You're such a fool, Charles," V.V. said with a groan of frustration, "You're clearly fretting over nothing."

Charles was getting closer and closer to insanity, V.V. knew and despite his constant assurances and Charles's constant agreements, he knew that part of his brother just refused to let it lie. V.V. even suggested that he go to C's World and converse with Euphemia like he had done with Clovis after Lelouch had killed him, but Charles refused, clearly too afraid that he would not find Euphemia, though at first V.V. scoffed and asked him why since Euphemia was clearly dead. He even told Charles of his little detour to the Avalon while on his way to capture Nunnally in an attempt to convince Charles that Euphemia was indeed dead, but Charles responded that she may have been brought back to life, to which V.V. laughed, claiming that such a thing was impossible. Not even Geass was capable of such a thing and he had gone to C's World to where the Collective Human Subconscious resided to search for Euphemia, but to his absolute shock, he had discovered that she was indeed, missing, though according to some of the other people whose minds resided from within the collective consciousness, Euphemia did indeed arrive, but her stay was only temporary, which could only mean that Charles was right and Euphemia had indeed been resurrected, but just who on Earth possessed a power such as that and more importantly, why had Euphemia been revived? V.V. also realised that Charles's refusal to converse with the minds of the dead meant that he knew that Euphemia was alive, but that he was in denial and was fearful that trying to converse with Euphemia would confirm what he already knew and thus, destroy his denial.

However, despite this, V.V. doubted that Euphemia's revival was to stop the Ragnarök Connection. After all, it had been three months since then and she had not been seen since, though he knew that it was probably due to the fact that her reputation would get her killed the moment someone recognised her and whoever had revived her was pretty good at keeping her well hidden. However, he could safely rule out Euphemia's revival as part of a plan to stop the Ragnarök Connection as Euphemia clearly was not the best person to recruit for such a cause due to her kind and naïve nature. Euphemia was not a fighter and therefore would be ineffective in any plan as V.V. knew that she would try to stop them without resorting to violence, though he did have agents scour the globe, just in case, but they had pretty much scoured the entire world and had not found her; not even in underground locations where hiding someone for a long period of time would be ideal and if Euphemia was travelling, then surely someone would have been bound to recognise her.

In any case, it mattered not. Telling Suzaku of Geass had all been part of his plan in doing away with Lelouch. He hoped that Suzaku would succumb to his anger and kill Lelouch and it seemed that that was what he was intending to do, but unfortunately, Suzaku somehow managed to regain enough of his rationality to deduce that Lelouch was more useful to him alive, which infuriated him, but it was no major setback. Suzaku had brought Lelouch before Charles and Charles used his Geass to wipe Lelouch's memories and returned him to "Area Eleven" under the watchful eyes of the OSI; one of them as which was a member of the Geass Order, Rolo and V.V. had ordered Rolo to kill Lelouch when he finally did regain his memories. Rolo was playing the part of Lelouch's younger brother and he knew that Charles was expecting Lelouch to regain his memories and pick up where he left off, but V.V. was determined that that would not happen. Lelouch was bait to lure in C.C. so they could force her to help with the Ragnarök Connection as they needed a second Code-Bearer and once C.C. appeared, Lelouch would be disposed of. Of course, Charles believed that he would outwit them, but V.V. had other ideas.

"I understand the pros of your plan, Charles," V.V. said as he rose off the throne and walked over to a table with two huge fish tanks sitting on top of it; the one on the right containing a shawl of goldfish and the one on the left containing a shawl of red-bellied piranhas, "But there are also cons in your plan and weighing the pros and cons up, the cons far outweigh the pros. Lelouch is too much of a threat to be allowed to live."

The tanks on the table had no lids and once V.V. stood in front of the table, he reached his hand into the tank containing the goldfish, causing the fish to swim away in fright, but he managed to grab one by the tail with his thumb and index fingers and he proceeded to lift it out of the tank.

"It's a shame, Lelouch, that you never knew your mother's true colours," the immortal child continued to say to himself, "But after you die and join her in the Collective Subconscious, all will be revealed; especially after the Ragnarök Connection has been completed."

He then moved the hand holding the wriggling goldfish over to above the tank containing the piranhas and then released the fish, dropping it in. He watched as the disoriented goldfish started to swim, but before it could get its bearings, one of the piranhas came up to it and took a rather violent bite into its side, but it managed to free itself; albeit with a bleeding wound in its side. However, the rest of the piranhas took this as an invitation to join the first and they all very quickly surrounded the goldfish and moved in, taking bites into it from all directions and it did not take long for the frenzy to end and the piranhas all dispersed leaving behind a few strings of meat, bone fragments and a mass of red where the goldfish had been and V.V. allowed a cruel sadistic smirk to etch itself onto his face as he watched.

"Like that fish, Lelouch will be meet the same fate," he mused to himself imagining the tank full of goldfish being Lelouch's world in his false life and the goldfish he had fed to the piranhas was Lelouch himself and the process of feeding the goldfish to the piranhas being Lelouch regaining his memories and the piranhas themselves where the OSI agents acting before Lelouch had a chance to adjust to regaining his real memories. Like the goldfish, Lelouch would be dead before he realised it.

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Duel Academy Island<strong>

It was a relatively peaceful night in the Southern Seas. The sky was clear and the stars twinkled in the blackness, providing lighting to the otherwise dark sky. A calm breeze blew in the air, causing the grass and the leaves of the trees on Duel Academy Island to sway to and fro gently in the air, but other than that, it was pretty calm and quiet. The sea itself was calm with not even a ripple on the surface. If anyone had been out late-night walking and looked to the east, then they would have seen the lights from a passing ship off in the distance. But this did nothing to disturb the calm nature as the island was pretty near some of the world's major shipping lanes and so passing ships; even this late at night; be they freighters, cruise liners or any other ships was considered normal, so if anyone had been out walking and happened to notice the ship, they would naturally pay it no mind. Despite the randomness of ships appearing off in the distance and no set patterns of when certain ships appeared and reappeared, ships being seen off the coast of Duel Academy Island were so common that they were more or less ignored. The only shipping lane that led to the island itself was the ferry service from the Japanese mainland and the ferries had long since ended for the day. Nonetheless the freighters and cruise liners continued on during the night and so, seeing ships off in the distance twenty-four hours a day was not out of place.

However, sometimes a common occurrence and people learning to ignore them since they believe that those occurrences pose no threat to them could work against them as some people hid behind them and used them to get close to their enemies; though in this case, it was not a case of getting close to one's enemies, but more of being used to infiltrate a facility. Out the beach on the eastern side of the island while the ship was still in the background, a black hump emerged from the water and moved towards the beach and as it did so, more and more of it became visible; including a pair of goggles and breathing apparatus. In fact, the "hump" was actually the top of the head of a girl in a black and blue scuba diving suit; blue in the torso area with black sleeves, leggings and the hood that went over her head, which was attached to the suit was also black. She also had a yellow-coloured air tank strapped onto her back with the straps running over her shoulders and round her waist. She also had a white bag slung over her right shoulder and the bag was made of a very strong waterproof plastic material that protected the contents of the bag from the water while she had been swimming.

"Duel Academy Island," the girl said after removing the breathing apparatus from her mouth and then pulled off her goggles, "Finally, I'm here and nothing's going to stop me this time."

After she had made it onto the beach and out of the water, she removed her flippers, which were the same colour of blue as the torso area of her suit, revealing that the suit also covered the entirety of her feet and she also undid the straps that held the air tank in place and took it off before pulling the hood of her suit off revealing long sky-blue coloured hair that went down to just the area where at the front, her stomach would be and then she looked around the beach, looking for somewhere to hide her discarded items with her sharp sparkling blue eyes.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Girls' Dorm, Eileen and Hailey fearfully stood outside Stella's room as they heard their leader scream in absolute fury mixed in with the sounds of hard objects hitting off one another and the two unwilling lackeys knew that their leader was throwing things around the room and against the walls. They both just could not believe what they had just witnessed earlier that day. They had seen Stella duel against Euphemia Felixton, the "Pink-haired Floozy" that had gotten under their leader's skin since losing to her on the first day they had arrived at Duel Academy. Earlier had been the Promotional Exams and Stella had gone to her uncle, Edward to have him pull strings in order to ensure that she faced off against Euphemia as they were in separate dorms and under normal circumstances, students from different dorms were usually not paired with one another during the field portion of the exam.<p>

"I still can't believe that that Slifer Slut managed to pull off another miracle," Hailey said to her orangette friend as she played the events of the day back in her mind, unable to believe or accept that Euphemia had somehow managed to win, "It's just not possible. She must have cheated somehow."

Eileen only nodded, though she did not seem to be listening and only nodded because she had heard her friend speak, though if she had been listening then she would have nodded anyway as she also refused to accept Euphemia's win. It was just unbelievable how it had happened. Right from the word, "Go", Stella had clearly been dominating the duel right up until Euphemia only had two hundred life points left and just when it seemed that Stella would win, Euphemia had surprised everyone with her facedown card, which had turned the duel around and destroyed Stella's monster and if that wasn't enough; even though Stella had managed to cut the damage she received in half, saving her from defeat, Euphemia had drawn a monster with enough attack points to win her the duel and if that was not enough; she had only been able to summon said monster thanks to a Field Spell that Stella had played as she would have had to have sacrificed a monster on the field had the Field Spell not been played and she had none out on the field. It was inconceivable how Euphemia managed to do it. Sure, she had beaten Stella before, but they had just put that down to dumb luck and had simply believed that lightning never struck twice in the same place; meaning that Euphemia just could not pull of a lucky win a second time. Unfortunately, it seemed as if they had been proven wrong and somehow, some way, Euphemia had managed to defy logic and win a second time.

"Unbelievable," Eileen whispered as she remembered witnessing the duel's conclusion, which resulted in Stella flying back and landing on her butt, "I wish I knew how she did that."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, inside the room, Stella continued to scream in seething rage as the duel continued to play out in her head. She just could not understand or even comprehend what had happened. She clearly had the duel won and in her mind, she believed that she should have won. Just how did that Pink-haired Floozy manage to turn things around? It should not have happened. She had been dominating the duel. The Floozy should not have been able to wriggle her way out of her predicament. The fact that she had and the fact that Stella refused to believe or acknowledge it only served to infuriate the teal-haired girl even further.<p>

"I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS!" Stella screamed as she picked up a chair with both her hands and threw it against the wall to the left of the door, "I WAS THE WINNER! ME! HOW DARE THAT FLOOZY STEAL MY VICTORY! I'M GONNA FREAKIN' KILL 'ER!"

She then picked up one of her spare blazers by the drape at the back that ran under the band and threw it to the floor. The blue drape at the back on the girls' blazers was normally missed by those studying them. It went down to stomach level. It was the same dark blue colour as the band and had the same light blue colour outlining the edges. At the bottom of the drape were two points as the edges went upwards at diagonal angles, meeting in the centre, making the bottom out to be an upside-down V shape.

Anyway, Stella continued to fume over her latest defeat and to make matters worse, she knew that she, herself had contributed to her own defeat. First, she had forgotten about her Sacrificial Bypass Field Spell, which had enabled Euphemia to summon Dark Magician Girl to win her the duel, but if that was not enough, she had used her Giant Behemoth's ability to switch Euphemia's Cybernetic Magician from defence mode to attack mode knowing that Giant Behemoth had a piercing effect and that the difference between the behemoth's attack points and the opposing monster's points were doubled as damage and seeing how Cybernetic Magician only had one thousand defence points as opposed to its attack points, which were twenty-four hundred. However, she had wanted to prolong the duel so she could make Euphemia suffer for the defeat she had handed her when they first duelled and she wanted to use the monsters that her Uncle Edward had given her to crush Euphemia, but unfortunately, that was not all that contributed to her defeat. Before Euphemia had turned the duel around, Stella had noticed that she had placed a card facedown; the very card that had led to her downfall and thinking back on it, she realised that she had Mystical Space Typhoon in her hand and therefore could have destroyed Euphemia's facedown card, but she had been so caught up in her excitement over finally winning against the Pink-haired Floozy that; even though she had seen Euphemia place the card facedown, she did not believe that it was anything to worry about. She had initially believed that all the facedown card would do was prolong the duel for a little longer and so decided that she would humour Euphemia and not bother using Mystical Space Typhoon to get rid of it. Unfortunately, it had cost her.

"Just how in the world did she get her hands on a card as rare as that?" the cruel teal-haired girl thought as she clenched her fists and shook her head, "She shouldn't have been allowed to possess that card. She's an amateur, a nobody and weaklings like her shouldn't be allowed to have powerful cards."

Of course, she knew that she was just making excuses to vent her anger, but in her anger, like with the fact that she had targeted Euphemia first, it had become lost to her. In her mind, she was supposed to have won that duel and Euphemia was supposed to have become a psychological wreck. She refused to understand just how it was possible for Euphemia to overcome her, but thinking back, Stella had slowly come to realise that even if she had won, judging from Euphemia's attitude throughout the duel, if she had won then Euphemia would not have been broken. She would have probably shrugged it off and moved on with her life. That was something that Stella had not encountered before. Usually when she duelled against someone, her taunts and verbal lashings along with her fierce attacks usually succeeded in breaking her opponents' spirits and scared them out of duelling again, but Euphemia was different. She had been able to shrug off her insults and attacks as if they were nothing and not knowing how to handle it, the teal-haired girl exploded with anger, unable to believe or accept it. Euphemia was not supposed to shrug it off; she was supposed to break just like everyone else; especially since, when Stella first saw her, Euphemia was a kind and caring individual that looked so gentle that she would not hurt a fly. Those were Stella's favourite types of people to break. Their innocence and naivety made them soft targets and giving them a vicious slap of reality and knowing that they did nothing to deserve it really made Stella's day. It brought out a euphoria in her that she found to be addictive as if it were a drug.

"Only human," Euphemia's voice echoed in her mind, taunting her once again by reminding her of the inescapable truth that she was like everyone else.

Well, at least the Floozy had not mentioned that in their duel, but unfortunately, that did nothing to sooth the cruel girl's rage. It had been a month since she had been hit with them and their taunting meaningfulness had not diminished any. Despite Euphemia's kind and caring nature, she had proven to be a fierce duellist that was more than willing to put aside her calm and gentle nature when the need arose, though how she managed it was something that Stella just could not fathom. How could someone with such a kind and caring character also be a fierce competitor that was able to shrug off even the most vile and cruel insults and succeed in unnerving her? Such a thing was incomprehensible. Stella just could not find an answer no matter how much she wracked her brain. The kind and caring Euphemia and the person she had duelled earlier that day were so different that Stella believed that they were two completely different people and yet, she knew that they both were the same person and yet, when Euphemia duelled her, she had been so different from the person she had seen laughing and joking with her friends, it was almost frightening. However, Stella did know one thing; even if she had won, Euphemia would have no doubt blown it off as nothing and with that in mind, Stella realised that she would probably never be able to break her, which infuriated her even further.

"Well, I suppose that there's only one solution that'll solve my problems," she thought as she eyed a knife lying on the floor as she remembered what Euphemia had told her during their duel and how she contemplated it after her defeat and a rather sadistic smile slowly started to creep onto the edges of his lips, "People like you are not meant for this world. People like you are a disease; a disease that needs to be eradicated and people like me… we are the cure."

* * *

><p>Back outside the room, Eileen and Hailey continued to stand, wondering whether or not to go in and check on their leader. Things had definitely quietened down now, though neither the orangette nor the short-haired brunette were sure if the teal-haired girl had calmed down or not. This had happened in the past whenever Stella was angry. Just when it seemed that she had calmed down, Eileen and Hailey had both gone in to see if she was alright, only to find her just as angry as she was when she was throwing things around her room. She had just run out of things to throw and the two unwilling lackeys usually found themselves the new targets of their leader's rage. They were both wondering if this was like all those other times that they had been lulled into a false sense of security or if Stella really had calmed down this time.<p>

"D-d-d-do to think it's safe?" Hailey asked nervously as she glanced fearfully at the curly-haired orangette, just as concerned for her friend's safety as she was for her own.

"Who knows," Eileen said, looking unsure as she gave the door to their leader's room a fearful glance as she pondered whether or not to go in, "But the question is, should we risk it?"

They both then took a long glance at one another before turning to face Stella's door and then turned back to face one another before shaking their heads, finally deciding not to risk it before they both ran off in opposite directions.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the Slifer Red Dorm, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair had already gone to bed and Euphemia and Blair were both out to the world, but Yumi could not sleep for some reason. She lay awake in the middle bunk with her hands clasped behind her head as she stared up at the bottom of Blair's mattress as if it where the ceiling, thinking about the course of the day. Once again, she had just barely managed to win a duel, winning her duel for the field part of the Promotional Exams and she had only managed to win because her opponent; who had surprisingly been the girl that she and Euphemia had spoken to before going to the card shack had only used monster cards and not spell or trap cards, but even then, she had been a handful and Yumi had only managed to win with just a hundred life points. However, that did not matter to her as she already knew that she had failed the written part of the exam and it really did deflate her mood as she feared that she may be expelled anyway due to her poor performance and she could practically feel her older sister's "I told you so" gaze of indifference baring down on her as if to mock her.<p>

However, thinking of Euphemia and how she had managed to pull off a miracle and come out on top during her duel with Stella when Stella clearly had the advantage throughout the duel, but only to lose due to her own overconfidence helped take her mind off her troubles. Euphemia had simply been amazing, able to maintain her cool against Stella's cruelty and shrug it off. In truth, Yumi had feared for her friend, knowing that Stella had every intention of completely destroying her spirit, but to her surprise and relief, Euphemia refused to break and seemed to become even more determined when Stella clearly had the advantage. Yumi wished she had that sort of confidence. She knew that if she had been Stella's opponent, Stella would have undoubtedly verbally lashed her into forfeiting due to her lack of confidence, but Euphemia was able to brush it off like it was nothing and yet, Euphemia was also the first person to befriend her and not ridicule her due to her poor duelling skills in comparison to her sister's and not only that; but thanks to Euphemia, she was also able to open up a lot more round the group of friends that she had made and once again, Euphemia was responsible for them all getting together in the first place. Euphemia certainly did seem to produce this soothing aura of friendliness round about her and not only seemed to calm people to the point of letting go of their troubles and opening up, but also let those who had also been touched by this aura to befriend one another and Yumi knew that the group of friends she had were definitely not the sorts of people that would usually tolerate being around one another for any considerable period of time. She was too timid to open up, Terrance and Abigail had personalities of stereotypical nerds, James looked like a punk and Zukasu was a prep-school graduate that was at the top of his class and probably would have considered himself too good for everyone else… well, that was not entirely true as she remembered that Zukasu had approached her and Euphemia after their first run-in with Stella and was genuinely friendly with them and did not consider himself better than them because he was an Obelisk and they were Slifers, but still; Yumi had to wonder if he would have socialised with them if Euphemia had not been there since those who did socialise with those considered inferior to them were usually frowned upon by their peers.

"Suzaku," the Japanese brunette suddenly heard Euphemia moan in her sleep, bringing her back to reality, "Suzaku, I love you…"

That was one thing that did pique Yumi's curiosity. Euphemia herself was a kind and caring carefree individual, always cheerful and eager to make new friends. Yumi remembered how she just came into the Kaiba Dome where the Entrance Exams had taken place and struck a conversation with her out of the blue without being prompted to do so and she had even talked her into going over with her to congratulate James on his victory and they hit it off pretty well. However, despite that, Yumi could not help but wonder about Euphemia as she was all too aware that aside from her name, she knew practically next to nothing about the pinkette. She did not know anything about her past, her family or even where she came from and from what she had seen, it seemed that Euphemia herself did not know either.

"Suzaku," Yumi whispered to herself, "And Zukasu is an anagram of Suzaku."

She remembered hearing Euphemia mention that name when she first laid eyes on Zukasu and Zukasu did indeed find the name familiar, but neither he nor Euphemia, who did not remember mentioning the name knew why, though Zukasu and Euphemia did hit it off quite well. In fact, studying their behaviour, Yumi found herself surprised as she concluded that they were acting as if they were reunited lovers who had not seen each other in a long time… and then there was the mystery of Zukasu's Knightmare Frame monsters and Euphemia's recognition of them. Yumi remembered watching Zukasu's duel with Stella and how Euphemia seemed to zone out throughout the duration of the duel as Zukasu's monsters appeared on the field. It was clear that she was definitely experiencing flashbacks, though when she came back to reality, she had completely forgotten what those flashbacks had been about, though she did manage to discover that a woman called Cornelia had been a part of them as Euphemia clearly mentioned her name upon seeing Zukasu's Royal Gloucester. Unfortunately, like everything else, Euphemia just could not remember this Cornelia woman, though she was able to deduce that Cornelia had been the woman she had been arguing with in her dream that she had had while en route to Duel Academy.

"Euphie, I really want to get to know you," the Japanese girl thought and she rolled over onto her left side and stared at the wall, "But you have amnesia and it's getting in the way."

That much was true, Yumi knew. She was no fool. She knew that Euphemia had amnesia, but she was determined that she would help her friend piece together her forgotten life. She wanted to get to know Euphemia; the real Euphemia, though she could not help but wonder if Jaden was somehow involved with her strange amnesia. After all, Jaden had been the one who recommended her to Duel Academy and according to Euphemia, he had found her unconscious in an alleyway in Domino and she did not know how she had gotten there. However, Yumi could not help but wonder if Jaden knew despite Euphemia telling her that he had denied it when she had asked him. The whole thing with Zukasu and his deck of Knightmare Frame monsters or "mechas on roller blades" as she had dubbed them due to the wheels attached to the backs of their feet was indeed peculiar as they all invoked flashbacks of Euphemia's previous life. Heck, she remembered that earlier that morning, Euphemia had tried to kiss her, mistaking her for Suzaku when she tried to wake her up, though Euphemia's advances had prevented her from thinking about it then. However, she knew that even if she had thought about it back then, she would still be no closer to solving the mystery than she was now, but she wanted to be there for Euphemia; to help her if she needed it.

"Don't worry, Euphie, we'll just take it as it comes; just one piece at a time," she thought as she made up her mind, "We'll get your memories back eventually."

* * *

><p>The next day had proven to be rather uneventful. Classes had gotten back to normal and though Stella did show up and continue her furious glaring towards Euphemia, nothing came of it as aside from the glares, the cruel teal-haired girl left the pinkette alone. Euphemia was ten-to-fifteen minutes late for the first class as usual, but other than that. Everything was relatively peaceful, though looking up at Stella had caused Yumi to worry since she knew that the hostilities between her and Euphemia were far from over and what terrified the Japanese brunette the most was that she remembered how Euphemia had practically told Stella that if she wanted rid of her for good, then she would have to resort to killing her and knowing Stella, Yumi knew full well that the teal-haired girl was more than capable of carrying it out.<p>

"Just what the hell were you thinking, Euphie?" she thought worryingly as she had shot a concerned glance at Euphemia before trailing her gaze up at Stella, "Don't you realise that Stella's insane enough to actually take advice like that to heart?"

Looking at Stella, Yumi knew that the next time she and Euphemia duelled, Euphemia could very well be duelling for her life as she knew that Stella would kill her if she lost; heck she may just decide to kill the pinkette anyway regardless of the outcome. Stella definitely had a frighteningly murderous look in her eyes; something that had not been there before the Promotional Exams the previous day and she knew that it would mean trouble for Euphemia and potentially the rest of their friends in future.

Presently, Yumi, Euphemia, James, Terrance, Abigail and Zukasu were congregating outside the Slifer Dorm with Blair leaning against the left of the doorframe to the room she shared with the other two Slifer girls. Anyway, just before they were about to start their conversation, Hassleberry came walking up to them with a cheerful smile on his face.

"Hey, soldiers," he greeted as he raised his hand, "How're things in these here barracks?"

Yumi groaned as the others all chuckled nervously, still feeling rather awkward as the dino-duellist's military jargon. However, if Hassleberry noticed, then he obviously had chosen to ignore it as he just chuckled in response.

"Just comin' to check up on Private Euphie," he said simply before turning his attention to Euphemia, "So, how's things with ya?"

"Oh, everything's great, I think I've settled in pretty well," Euphemia replied with a smile, deciding to be polite as Hassleberry truly meant well.

"Good to hear, ma'am," the dino-duellist said with enthusiasm, "Oh, I heard how you defeated that mean Stella girl during the field tests of yesterday's Promotional Exams, so congratulations."

"Thanks, but honestly, I think I just lucked out," the pinkette spoke up, deciding to be honest, "Stella was dominating the duel right up until the very end when I drew the card that helped to turn it around and I was only able to summon the monster I drew on my last turn due to the effect of Stella's Sacrificial Bypass field spell. If not for that, Stella would have undoubtedly won since with only two hundred life points and nothing in my hand that I could use to defend myself and the only monster in my hand having a level that requires a sacrifice to summon, then without Stella's field spell, Stella would have summoned a monster and defeated me on her next turn. It was only because the effect of her Field Spell applied to both players that I was able to win."

"It doesn't matter," Hassleberry said in a dismissive tone, "I heard that ya kept yer cool even when things looked bad. From what I've heard of Stella, had ya been anyone else, ya probably woulda cracked."

Everyone nodded in agreement, though it only served to remind Yumi of the fact that Stella was now probably out to kill Euphemia; especially considering what the dino-duellist had just said. Euphemia did not break under Stella's usual verbal bashings and the Japanese girl knew that Stella just did not know how to handle that since it was the first time anyone she had encountered had not broken while under the pressure she normally put her opponents through. Yumi knew that that would no doubt only fuel Stella's desire to kill Euphemia, since in Stella's mind; Euphemia was not meant to maintain her cool. She was supposed to break just like her previous opponents. Since Stella had not encountered anyone with a will as strong as Euphemia's, plus Euphemia's usual kind and caring nature towards others; being unable to handle it meant that Stella's only solution to get rid of the problem was to eliminate the source of said problem and Yumi knew that even if Euphemia had have lost, she would have just blown it off and she shuddered to think what that would have done to Stella as she knew that Stella probably would have exploded with rage; believing that Euphemia was supposed to be a quivering mass of paranoia. In fact, that scenario would probably have been worse, all things considering. Stella had made it her mission to crush, humiliate and ruin Euphemia and believed that defeating her in a duel would do the trick, but just through observing Euphemia throughout the duration of the duel, Yumi knew that it would have taken a lot more to break the pinkette and even more frightening; the Japanese girl knew that Stella was no doubt aware of that fact as well.

"I understand what you mean," Zukasu said to her quietly as he had been observing her and had been thinking along the same wavelength, "The revelation that it'll take more than a loss and verbal bashings to break Euphie could potentially drive Stella to murder since she's never encountered anyone like that before and doesn't know how to handle it, but even more dire, the rest of the Harrington Family will no doubt get involved since her uncle had been watching the duel and he had set it up."

Yumi's eyes widened in shock as she realised that she had neglected to consider what the rest of Stella's family would do since, as Zukasu had said, Stella's uncle, Edward had arranged for the duel to take place and had been watching. She had been so worried over Euphemia and what Stella would do that she had forgotten about the rest of the Harrington Family. Stella was bad enough, but if even half of what she had heard about the Harrington Family was true, then it meant that they; Euphemia in particular could potentially be in for the roughest rides of their lives since she knew that to make an enemy of one Harrington was to make an enemy of them all and they did not mess about when it came to dealing with their targets. They would no doubt come for Euphemia and anyone else who stood in their way.

"By the way," Blair spoke up, bringing Yumi and Zukasu back to reality, "Yesterday when Euphie came back to the dorm after turning down her promotion to Ra Yellow, Yumi got so carried away in her happiness that she actually kissed Euphie right in the lips."

"Blair!" Yumi exclaimed in shock as everyone else's eyes widened in shock at hearing this.

"Wow, she actually kissed her?" James said in awe as he fought to prevent a perverted smile from making its way onto his face, remembering the double uppercut that Yumi and Abigail had given him for a rather perverted comment he made during Euphemia and Stella's duel when Euphemia had summoned Horned Kuriboh and the girls all went hysterical over its cuteness.

The girls all noticed the smile that was trying its best to burst out onto his face, but seeing that he was trying to suppress it, none of them made a move to hurt him.

"It was an accident!" Yumi stated in a defensive tone before turning to face Euphemia, still a bit worried that she was not as okay with it as she let on, "You're not upset about that, are you, Euphie? I swear that it was an accident!"

"I believe you Yumi; you just got so caught up in the moment that you acted without thinking," Euphemia said with a nod, "No worries, stuff like that happens from time to time."

"You kissed another girl," Terrance teased, earning a glare from his sister.

Yumi only groaned in frustration before noticing Zukasu staring between her and Euphemia in wonder, which only served to further alarm her as she knew the strange relationship Euphemia shared with the Japanese boy.

"Zukasu, I swear to you that it was an accident," she said in a hurriedly fearful tone, fearing that the knowledge had destroyed their friendship as well as the relationship he had with Euphemia, "I, I just got so caught up in my excitement that I acted without thinking before I could stop myself, I swear that's the truth! I'm sorry!"

Zukasu was indeed another mystery on top of Euphemia's amnesia. From the very first day they met, Yumi had seen how Euphemia had taken to him. Despite the fact that they had only just met, Euphemia acted as if she had known Zukasu and the same could be said for Zukasu himself. As she had concluded the previous night, Euphemia and Zukasu were like reunited lovers picking up from where they had left off before parting ways and it was strange considering that not only did Euphemia have a familiarity with the prep school graduate and associated him with the name, Suzaku; Zukasu himself also had a familiarity with the name as well and also seemed as familiar with Euphemia as she was with him and like Euphemia, he had no idea why; though unlike Euphemia, he did not suffer from amnesia and knew everything that had happened to him before enrolling in Duel Academy and he had not met Euphemia before enrolling in Duel Academy. Yumi remembered how Zukasu had told them of his life and Yumi had to admit that it was puzzling how someone he had never met before could be so familiar with him and him so familiar with her at the same time.

"Gee, I think I'm jealous," the Japanese girl thought to herself as she stared worryingly at Zukasu.

That much was true. Since meeting Euphemia and getting to know her personality, Yumi could honestly say that being in her presence was addictive. Euphemia was friendly to everyone she met and seemed to lighten the mood no matter where she was. However, seeing Euphemia in Zukasu's company and seeing how familiar they both seemed with each other made her feel jealous. She found herself envying Zukasu since Euphemia seemed closest to him and Yumi had met her first. She could see it in their eyes whenever she saw them interact. Yumi figured that they probably were not exactly boyfriend and girlfriend, but they were definitely closer than most siblings. Yumi wanted to be in Zukasu's place. After being ridiculed for so long by others due to her lack of duelling skills and her sister's success, she longed for people who could make her feel safe and secure so she could just let go of her troubles and be herself and Euphemia was the first person that made her feel that way. Of course, she was not in love with Euphemia. It was not that sort of jealousy. It was possible for someone to be jealous to someone of the opposite gender for cutting in on their time with their friend of the same gender and not be in love with that friend. She was just a bit afraid that if Zukasu took Euphemia's time away from her, then she would regress back into the person she was before she met Euphemia. There was no other reason to explain it; at least, that's what she told herself.

Of course, the fact that Zukasu was her friend as well and the fact that the jealousy Yumi felt for him was relatively small due to the fact that he also spent time with both her and Euphemia together and had been really friendly with her prevented her from acting on this jealousy. She had been surprised to find that Zukasu had been really forgiving after she had read a fake love letter that Stella wrote for Euphemia claiming it to have been from Zukasu in which the letter stated that Zukasu had wanted Euphemia to become his sex slave. Yumi remembered how Stella had spelt Zukasu's name wrong, but after phrasing the misspelled name using the English sounds for letter placements, she had been so shocked that she had forgotten to double-check the letter and had pretty much given Zukasu a rather nasty glare when he had tried to approach Euphemia, though Yumi had to wonder if her jealousy over Zukasu's place in Euphemia's life had played a part in that, now that she thought about it. Nonetheless, once the misunderstanding had been cleared up, Zukasu had forgiven her unconditionally. Just how would he react to the news that she had kissed Euphemia, albeit accidentally?

"Hey, don't worry about it," Zukasu's voice came, bringing the Japanese brunette back to reality, "Accidents happen. Besides, there's nothing that can be done about it now, is there?"

"Yeah, don't get so worked up over it," Abigail said dismissively as she waved a dismissive hand, "Accidents are accidents and even if they are preventable, that doesn't mean that you're able to stop them."

"You mean it?" Yumi said as she stared at Zukasu and Abigail both, feeling rather nervous.

"Yeah, no use crying over spilled milk," Zukasu said with a smile, "We're not mad. I can tell from your body posture that it really was an honest accident."

"Arigatō, Zukasu-kun, Abi-chan," Yumi said, speaking in her native language as she sighed with relief.

"But I bet you enjoyed it," Blair whispered over to the Japanese brunette with a wicked grin on her face, though Yumi knew that the younger girl was just teasing her, but that did not stop her from shooting her a rather frustrated glare.

"Anyway, if we can just put that unfortunate event to one side, I'd like to talk about something else," Euphemia spoke up and everyone nodded in agreement.

Hassleberry had to admit that he had been at a loss for words at hearing that Yumi had accidentally kissed Euphemia, but decided to just leave it as it had clearly been an accident and talking about it seemed to upset Yumi.

Yumi just shot Blair a glare.

"Don't you ever bring stuff like that up again," she whispered dangerously to the bluenette.

Blair just nodded, realising that she may have unwittingly upset the older girl as she stared into her eyes and hung her head in shame.

"I still say that you liked it though," she chuckled, though she did not voice this aloud, knowing better than to push her luck.

However, Yumi found herself blushing somewhat at Blair's statement, but shook her head, deciding that the redness in her cheeks was from her anger at Blair for letting everyone else know about yesterday's unfortunate accident.

"So, Euphie, I was wondering," she said as she put all thoughts of what had just transpired to the back of her mind, "Can I call you Euphie-chan? You know how we Japanese tend to add honorific suffixes to the ends of people's names. I was wondering if I could do the same with you."

"Of course you can," Euphemia said with a smile, "I'm very familiar with Japanese honorifics, so I don't mind."

"Arigatō, Euphie-chan," Yumi said, feeling a bit excited.

"Dōitashimashite," Euphemia said, speaking Japanese and saying, "You're welcome".

* * *

><p>Not far away, the intruder that had infiltrated the island the previous night stood behind a tree and watched the congregation of three Slifers, four Ras and one single Obelisk and was unsure what to make of it. She had heard about the colour-coded system of Duel Academy that acted as a hierarchy with Obelisk Blue being the top ranking dorm and Slifer Red being the lowest ranking dorm.<p>

"Though if those rankings were ranked due to the power of each God Card, then Ra Yellow would be the highest ranking dorm," the girl thought to herself.

It was a well-known fact that of the three Egyptian God Cards, the Winged Dragon of Ra was the most powerful of the three with multiple abilities and a strange way of summoning it to the field that it was rumoured that only certain duellists knew how to pull off. However, the girl also knew that the dorms at Duel Academy were not ranked based off the power of each God Card, but were ranked according to who had which God Card during the Battle City Tournament. Since Kaiba had obtained Obelisk the Tormentor, Obelisk Blue was the highest ranking dorm and since Yūgi Mutō had managed to obtain Slifer the Sky Dragon, Slifer Red was the lowest ranking dorm, which reflected Kaiba's bitterness that he still held to this day over losing his title as the Number One Duellist to Yūgi despite the fact that Yūgi and Kaiba had, more or less managed to put aside their differences and get on together whenever the situation called for it. The Ra Yellow Dorm was the dorm in the middle, which represented the God Card that had been in the possession of Marik Ishtar, the leader of the former International Crime Syndicate known as the Rare Hunters, who somehow managed to gain a full pardon after the Battle City Tournament due to his sister's ties with the Egyptian Government. Anyway, the dorm's standing in the hierarchy represent that card that neither Yūgi nor Kaiba had during the tournament.

"I guess not everyone lives by the status quo of the school as much as I thought," the blue-haired girl thought as she continued to watch the congregation as they all burst out into laughter.

She was of course, aware of the problems that the hierarchy caused. The Obelisk Blue students were at the top and only those with really high grades or connections could get in and since they were seen at the academy's best, many of them let it go to their heads and looked down on those who did not make it into the Obelisk Blue Dorm. The Ra Yellow students all seemed to follow suit with the Slifer Reds coming out having the worst of it since they were at the bottom, though for the Ra Yellow students, looking down on the Slifers was more of a coping mechanism since the Obelisk Blues also looked down on them because their dorm was ranked lower than theirs, though the Obelisk/Ra troubles were normally overshadowed since both dorms looked down on the Slifer Red students.

"Gee, an attitude like that is bound to produce a great deal of resentment among the students," the girl thought, "I guess even Jaden Yūki couldn't do anything to stop it."

That much was true. She knew all about Jaden Yūki and how he was the best student in Duel Academy during his time there despite the fact that he was a Slifer Red for the entirety of his three-year stay, though it was rumoured that he only remained in Slifer Red because he turned down all promotions that were given to him, though whether it was because of his friends or the fact that he liked the colour, red was a mystery as Jaden had been known to have been fond of red as a colour. Maybe it was a combination of both, the girl figured. In any case, Jaden had taken Duel Academy by storm and proven the notion of duelling skills being determined by the colour of one's blazer wrong. Unfortunately, there were those who were just too stubborn to accept it and they had come up with the excuse that Jaden had cheated somehow, though how anyone could win the number of duels Jaden had through cheating and not get caught was a mystery, but unfortunately when that was put to those too stubborn to accept the truth, they pretty much tried to dodge answering the question and those that did not… their answers were basically along the lines of "it doesn't matter, he cheated because we say he did".

"Idiots, if Jaden was a cheater, he may have been able to have gotten away with it for a while, but he would have eventually been caught," the girl thought with a nod as she rationalised Jaden.

Jaden was no cheater. He was a pretty good duellist who was only placed in Slifer Red due to his poor grades on the written side of the curriculum. He managed to beat the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue Dorm when the said headmaster was using his own personal deck. If that did not say something about his skills, the girl did not know what would. Zane Truesdale was the only student that Jaden could not beat, though the closest he got was a draw during their rematch and unfortunately Zane could no longer duel due to heart problems that he had gotten after he turned to underground duelling when his first official loss to Aster Phoenix sent him spiralling into a losing streak. Rumours were that Zane had turned to illegal underground duels that had the players put on electrodes that gave them a shock every time they lost life points. The duration of the shocks depended on how many life points were lost, but Zane had turned to those duels in a desperate attempt to get back on his game and when he emerged, he started winning again, but had adopted a cruel, sadistic and rather brutal personality and enjoyed making his opponents suffer, but unfortunately, the continued use of the electrodes during his underground duels had led to heart complications and now Zane's heart was so badly damaged that the adrenaline rush that came with duelling would undoubtedly kill him and the girl knew that Jaden was probably sore about that as Zane was perhaps the only person that he had never beaten in a duel.

"Enough about that, I've still got to a job to do," the girl said, shaking her head as she reminded herself of why she had come to Duel Academy Island in the first place, "And this time, I will not be denied."

* * *

><p>Later that night not long before curfew, Terrance, Abigail and James were all on their way back to the Ra Yellow Dorm. Hassleberry had left the Slifer Red Dorm ages ago since he had only been there to check up on Euphemia. However, Terrance and James were currently talking to one another as Abigail took up the rear a few steps behind them, looking around and not really paying attention to what her brother and their friend were talking about.<p>

"So the J-Man was wonderin'," James was currently saying, "Thinkin' back ta Euphemia's duel with Hassleberry."

"Uh huh," Terrance said with a nod as he listened.

"Hassleberry had Dark Tyranno out on the field and used his Fossil Excavation trap card to bring back his Gilasaurus," James continued as Terrance nodded, "An' Euphie only had Dark Magician Girl out on the field whose attack points were enhanced by Dark Magician and Illusion Magician in the graveyard, right?"

"Yeah and Dark Magician Girl gains three hundred attack points for each Dark Magician and Magician of Black Chaos in the graveyard and since Illusion Magician is treated as Dark Magician while on the field and in the graveyard, Dark Magician Girl gained six hundred extra attack points," Terrance explained as he remembered witnessing Euphemia's first official loss.

"An' Hassleberry used his Miracle Jurassic Egg to bring out his Super Conductor Tyranno," James went on and Terrance nodded, "Well the J-Man finds that totally unnecessary. He didn't need to do that. He could've just used his trap card to bring Gilasaurus back and sacrifice his Dark Tyranno since it had the same number of attack points as Dark Magician Girl and have Gilasaurus finish Euphie off, but he didn't."

"Yeah, I also noticed that," Terrance said in acknowledgement, "However, I think that it was just that he already had Miracle Jurassic Egg out on the field and didn't want it to go to waste, which is why he probably summoned Super Conductor Tyranno."

"He also used Super Conductor Tyranno's special ability to finish Euphie off when there was no need," James pointed out.

"Who knows," Terrance said with a shrug as he was also clueless as to why Hassleberry did what he did, "Why don't you ask him the next time you see him?"

James nodded.

However, further behind them, Abigail continued to walk at a slightly slower pace until she thought she saw some movement to her right, which caused her to stop. She thought she saw a flash of blue move behind a tree and she turned to face the tree. Of course, it may have just been her imagination or an animal of some kind as the island was home to a variety of wildlife, but somehow she got the feeling that it was more than that.

"Hey, Abi, what's up, why'd you stop?" her brother's voice came, causing her to shake her head and turn to face him and James, who had both noticed that she had stopped following them and were looking at her in concern.

"Huh, I thought I saw something," the bespectacled girl said as she turned back to stare at the tree that she had noticed the flash of blue at before nodding her head and turned back to face her brother and friend and then continued in a more serious tone, "Never mind, go on ahead, I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"Are you sure?" James asked, clearly showing concern as it was clear that was worried for his friend's safety.

"Yeah, I'm sure, just go on," Abigail said with a nod of assurance, "I won't be long."

James did not look convinced as he looked into the forest. Who knew what sort of wild animals were out there? Abigail may end up getting hurt. There were rumours of animals having escaped from a top-secret animal research laboratory that was said to have been based on the island. Of course, assuming that it ever existed at all, it had long since been abandoned, but unfortunately they left all the animals that they had been using as their guinea pigs behind and some of them just may have escaped. Of course, James knew that the chances of being attacked by a dangerous animal was pretty slim since Duel Academy would have taken safety measures if there was the chance that the students could be attacked while on their way to and from the main building to the dorms. Since they had not received any warnings, then James knew that the faculty of Duel Academy believed that it was safe enough, though it did not hurt to be careful, just in case. James opened his mouth to protest and looked to be taking a step towards the bespectacled girl, but Terrance raised his arm in front of him and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," he explained with a smile, "Abi's a big girl. She can take care of herself."

"Are you sure?" James said, still not a hundred percent convinced, "The J-Man's not all that confident."

"I know how to handle myself!" Abigail snapped, feeling a bit miffed that her friend did not have faith in her, assuming that his concern was due to the fact that she was a girl.

"Trust me, I know my own sister," Terrance said, also giving James a glare that told him that he was better off dropping the issue, "She once risked her life to save me from a burning building when we were eight when it was believed that there was no hope for me coming out alive. Abi went charging on in and came out with me unscathed and all I had suffered was a mild case of smoke inhalation."

"That was only due to the fact that I was small back then," Abigail commented honestly, "If it wasn't for the fact we were smaller back then, you really would have died."

Terrance nodded and James, albeit rather reluctantly nodded and gave in as he realised that there was just no changing Abigail's mind.

"But remember, curfew's in ten minutes, so make it quick," Terrance said to his sister, giving her a stern look as it was clear that he was also worried about her.

Abigail nodded and then both the boys turned and walked away as she watched them go and once they were out of sight, she turned back to the tree with a look of determination on her face.

* * *

><p>Behind the tree, the girl was leaning her back against it as she tailed the three Ras as they made their way back to their dorm. After the congregation had split, with the other Ra; whom the girl guessed was older than the others leaving a lot earlier, she had decided to tail the three of them; two boys and a girl. She was rather curious about the layout of the island and was looking for someone to potentially give her a tour once she had fulfilled her self-proclaimed mission. Of course, she could have chosen any of the others she had seen, but she felt that the boy from Obelisk Blue was probably a stuck-up snob and that asking the two Slifers may harm her chances at making friends in future. She did not have anything against them or anything like that. In fact, she believed that they were probably really decent people, but unfortunately, given how everyone else seemed to look down on those from Slifer Red, she feared that they would also look down on her as well for socialising with them since she knew that those who sympathised and associated themselves with those that were looked down on were pretty much given the same treatment by the masses.<p>

"Alright, come out!" a rather demanding voice came, bringing the girl out of her thoughts as she realised that whoever was speaking was speaking to her; obviously having seen her, "I know you're there, so come out!"

"Oh crap, busted!" the girl thought in a panic as she righted herself from leaning on the tree and started to run, "Not now! It's far too soon. Now I'm likely to be arrested for trespassing!"

"Hey, get back here!" the voice shouted after her, causing her to turn her head and look back to see the girl from the threesome she had been tailing chasing after her.

* * *

><p>Abigail had seen someone emerge from behind the tree and had immediately given chase as she studying the person she was chasing and was surprised to find that it was a girl with long flow blue hair wearing what appeared to be a blue and black jumpsuit of some kind.<p>

"I wonder what her game is," she thought as she also took notice of a white bag with the strap slung over the girl's right shoulder, "Well, I seriously doubt that she's a student, otherwise she wouldn't have fled or felt the need to hide herself."

In all honesty, she really did not know if what she had seen had been just her imagination or not and had called out, only half-expecting a response while at the same time, half-expecting there to be nothing there. However, she had spooked the girl and was now giving chase with the sole intent on finding out just who this girl was and what she was doing here.

* * *

><p>Out in front, the girl was cursing her luck for being so careless. How could she have been so careless as to have gotten caught? She thought that by tailing them at a safe distance, she would have not been seen, but unfortunately, she had figured wrong. She had been seen and now she was being chased. However, looking back and noticing that the girl chasing her was alone with neither of the boys that had been accompanying her in sight; a wicked grin suddenly appeared on her face as she just thought of a rather devious idea that could potentially turn this whole situation to her advantage despite having various risks involved.<p>

"Oh, I can make this work for me," she thought as she started to tremble with excitement, "Not my original intent, but I can have that girl help me get what I want."

She then veered to the left, leading the unsuspecting Abigail on as she eventually came to a clearing in the forest and ran to the opposite end of the clearing from where she had emerged and stopped, letting Abigail gain some ground between them, but seeing that the girl had stopped running had caused her to stop as well.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, James and Terrance had made it back to the Ra Yellow Dorm and were currently getting ready for bed. However, James just could not stop thinking about Abigail and how she had told them to go on ahead while she investigated something. He just could not get this nagging feeling out his out that something bad could possibly happen to her and was having visions of her in need of help with no one around to answer her calls.<p>

"Don't worry so much," Terrance said, having noticed his roommate's withdrawn look as he got into his bed and pulled the covers over himself, "As I already said, Abi can take care of herself."

James reluctantly nodded as he made his way over to his own bed, which was opposite Terrance's next to the adjacent wall, though from the looks of it, Terrance could tell that he was not convinced, but rather than continue to push it, he decided to drop it as he knew that James just would not let it lie, no matter how much Terrance tried to convince him otherwise, though he did appreciate the concern the punkish boy had for his sister, and he was also a bit curious about it as well, wondering if James perhaps felt something more for Abigail other than normal friendship and being Abigail's brother, Terrance just could not help but feel a little protective of his sister.

"I appreciate your concern for my sister though," he admitted rather honestly before giving James a rather stern look that held a hint of warning within his eyes, "Though I am curious on how you feel about Abi."

James visibly flinched upon noticing the look in his friend's eyes, which to him seemed to say something along the lines of "Don't even think about pursuing my sister in that manner".

"The protective brother," James said as he cautiously made his way to his own bed, "If yer implyin' what I think yer implyin', then fear not; for the J-Man wouldn't even dream of it."

Terrance just gave a rather satisfactory nod before lying down. He then looked over his room, which had light greenish yellow wallpaper and a white ceiling and a brown wooden door. The floor was made up of smooth wooden floorboards and the window between the two beds was draped with green curtains. The beds were at opposite ends up against the far corners of the room with the backs against the wall that held the window. There were also two wooden desks; one at either side next to the bed with light blue chairs positioned underneath and next to the desks were wooden polished cupboards; again, one at each side. Unlike many of the other rooms, this room had two single beds as opposed to bunk beds and that was the way Terrance liked it as he felt that being in the bottom bunk limited the light he was getting and the top would be too high for him to work. Anyway, next to either bed was a small bedside table, each with a small white plastic lamp with a white shade. Terrance shut his off as James climbed into his own bed.

"Good night," he said to his roommate as he turned to face the nearest wall.

"Good night," Terrance replied as he James's example and turned over to face the nearest wall.

However, James just could not sleep. He still worried over Abigail and despite what he told Terrance about his relationship with the bespectacled girl, he just could not help but wonder if perhaps he did feel something more for her. Of course, if anyone had asked him, he would deny it in a heartbeat, but he had to wonder if perhaps there was something there. Of course, he knew that Abigail may not necessarily feel the same way and from all their interactions in the past, he could believe that she did not. From their interactions in the past, James concluded that she only saw him as a friend and nothing more and he did not know why, but this knowledge did upset him somewhat. He honestly did not know what attracted him to Abigail. She was smart, beautiful, kind and did not judge him by his appearance, though he wondered if that had been down to Euphemia and the strange aura that she seemed to give off. If Euphemia had not existed, James had to wonder if the group of people that he now socialised with would have ever met up and befriended one another. Of the three girls in the group, Abigail stood out, though he did not know why. She was not the only girl with the traits that he found attracting him to her, but there was definitely something else about her that he found irresistible.

* * *

><p>Back in the forest clearing, the blue-haired girl slowly turned to face Abigail, who had come to a stop a few feet behind her. She looked the Ra Yellow girl up and down and Abigail felt a shiver run down her spine as she suddenly started to feel somewhat uncomfortable, but she gathered up her courage and pushed uncomfortable feelings to the back of her mind.<p>

"Okay, you, who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded as she glared at the girl, clearly not liking the way she was looking at her.

The girl did not reply right away as she continued to look the bespectacled redhead up and down, making said girl even more uncomfortable.

"Answer me!" Abigail snapped furiously as she took a threatening step forward in an attempt to intimidate the girl into stopping what she was doing.

"My, my, you're a beautiful one, aren't you?" the girl finally said as a rather wicked grin slowly materialised on her face, which caused Abigail to take a step back, feeling somewhat intimidated by the girl's tone.

"E-e-e-excuse me!" Abigail exhaled in outrage as she fought to hold onto her composure, clearly not liking what this girl was getting at.

However, this did nothing to deter the girl and if anything, her grin only widened as she observed Abigail's reaction. She then dropped the bag round her should to the ground and opening it up, she produced an old Battle City-style duel disk and attached it to her left arm.

Abigail's eyes widened as she remembered that she also had her own Academy-issued duel disk with her; just in case someone challenged her to a duel.

"So, you want to duel, huh?" she said as she calmed down, though she was still unnerved about how this girl was looking at her.

"Yep, that's right," the girl replied with a nod, "Oh and before you ask, my name is Amanda, Amanda Ribbets."

"Amanda?" Abigail said simply.

"Uh huh, and that's all you need to know for the moment," the girl, Amanda said with a chuckle as she flashed a smile at Abigail that Abigail, herself clearly did not like, "So what's your name, sweetie?"

"Sweetie!" Abigail said, clearly taken aback by the tone that Amanda was using and she struggled to contain her outrage, "For your information, my name is Abigail Richardson, not "sweetie" as you just called me and should I win this duel, you're telling me why you're here before I turn you over to Campus Security or the Disciplinary Action Squad."

Amanda just chuckled as she shook her head, causing Abigail to become increasingly nervous and she even subconsciously took a few steps back, causing Amanda's devious smile to widen even further.

"Abigail, somehow that name suits you," she said in a soft tone, though it did nothing to calm Abigail's nervousness down, "And believe me, my dear, regardless of the result of this duel, I'll tell you everything. To tell you the truth, I really wasn't intending on duelling anyone until I had done what I came here to do, but since you happened to catch me prematurely, I figured that I could use this to my advantage. Win this duel and I'll talk. However, lose and I'll still talk, but only because you're going to help me whether you want to or not."

Abigail could not help but tremble as she listened to the excitement in Amanda's voice. Looking at Amanda caused Abigail to tremble as she still looked at her in a way that she did not like. She then opened her blazer and looked on the inside, which held multiple card-holders. Like her cousin, Bastion, Abigail also had multiple decks, as did Terrance. Like Bastion, the Richardson Twins had six decks; one for each of the six attributes that existed in Duel Monsters and like Bastion, they both had a seventh deck that was pretty much filled with expendable cards in case a potential opponent tried to get at them by stealing their decks and throwing them away like Chazz Princeton had done to Bastion. When Bastion wrote to the twins, telling them of that incident; though Bastion had used his Water-Attribute deck and defeated Chazz anyway, both Terrance and Abigail decided that it would be a good idea to follow Bastion's example just in case. In fact, the twins had won their Entrance Exam duels using their "decoy" decks.

"Oh, so you're a multi-deck duellist, I gather?" Amanda said with a smile, "Somehow I gathered as much, given your nerdish appearance."

Abigail flinched at that, despite knowing that Amanda was not intending to insult her, but she still felt insulted nonetheless. It also served to remind her that she wore glasses and could not see probably without them. It was a topic that she was very sensitive about and hated it when people brought it up in front of her and she hated being called a nerd. Sure, she wore glasses and was pretty intelligent, but that did not make her a nerd, did it? In any case, she put those thoughts to the back of her mind as she selected the deck on the middle left of the inside of her blazer and inserted it into the deck slot of her duel disk before buttoning up her blazer again.

"Well now, are you ready, my dear Abigail?" Amanda said with a teasing giggle as she blushed, making Abigail feel even more uncomfortable.

Amanda then reached down into the bag she had dropped beside her and took out a deck of Duel Monsters cards and then inserted the deck into her deck slot and then activated her duel disk with Abigail following suit.

"I hope you like duelling in water," Amanda said to Abigail, causing Abigail's eyes to widen in shock.

"You mean you have a Water-Attribute deck?" the bespectacled girl asked and Amanda nodded.

"Why, what deck did you pick?" she asked curiously.

"None of your business!" Abigail snapped furiously, "You'll find out soon enough. Let's just do this!"

Amanda then flashed her a rather mischievous smile.

"GAME ON!" they both shouted in unison.

**Abigail**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

"Well then, since you're the student and I'm the intruder, why don't you go first?" Amanda said giddily with a giggle as she drew her five cards and waved at Abigail.

"Fine," Abigail said in a rather uncomfortable tone after drawing five cards and then drew her sixth.

Looking over her hand, she found that she had Negate Attack, Fox Fire, Fissure, Molten Destruction, Backfire and Solar Flare Dragon, which she just drew. This was her Fire-Attribute deck, which she had chosen, since she believed that it best reflected her mood towards the blue-haired girl since she felt rather uncomfortable with her behaviour. In any case, she reached for her Molten Destruction spell card, which had the image of an erupting volcano spewing out magma and ash with a reddish orange sky in the background and streams of lava trickling down the mountain.

"First, I play the field spell, Molten Destruction," she announced as she push a button on her duel disk and the field spell slot of her duel disk opened up and she proceeded to insert the card into it before it closed and then, suddenly, the scenery around them both changed to that of a barren wasteland with a red sky full of volcanic ash and the ground scorched black from burns and in the background between the two duellists was the volcano depicted in the card's image that was in the process of erupting.

"Wow, so I gather you're using a deck full of fire monsters," Amanda complimented in awe, though she had to admit that she was a bit frightened of the volcano despite it being just a hologram; but then again, the island did have a real activate volcano at its centre, so her fears may not be as exaggerated as one would probably think.

"That's right," Abigail said with a smirk, clearly enjoying Amanda's change in mood as at least she was not coming on to her anymore, "You deduced that much from just that one card. Anyway, with Molten Destruction, all fire-attribute monsters gain five hundred extra attack points, but in exchange they lost four hundred of their defence points."

She then reached for her Fox Fire (300/200) card and placed it on the monster space just to the left of the middle monster space in a horizontal position, indicating that she was summoning it in defence mode.

"And then I'll summon Fox Fire in defence mode," She went on explaining before a small anthropomorphic fox appeared on the field in a kneeling position with its arms crossed over its chest and a flame at the tip of its tail, "And then I'll threw two cards facedown and that's my turn."

She then reached for her Negate Attack and Backfire cards and placed them in the spell/trap slots; one in the slot to the far-right of the middle one and the other in the slot to the far-left of the middle one and the holographic representations of both cards appeared next to the imaginary borderlines of the field at either end. The Fox Fire (800/0) monster's look became more determined as it felt the effect of the Molten Destruction field spell.

Amanda looked in awe at Abigail's Fox Fire and then looked into Abigail's eyes and saw her disapproval of her behaviour reflected through them as well as the burning fire that seemed to strength her resolve. It was little wonder that she had chosen a deck of fire monsters since it seemed to reflect her mood pretty well, but it only served to excite the bluenette even further as she drew her sixth card and then looked at her hand, which consisted of A Legendary Ocean, Tornado Wall, Water Minotaur, Nightmare Penguin, Water Wall and Double Summon that she just drew.

"Oh, I see a fire in you, sweetie," she said as she trembled with excitement, "I'm so looking forward to this."

"Just take your turn!" Abigail snapped as she trembled uncomfortably, shooting the bluenette a disgusted glare.

Amanda then reached for her Water Minotaur card and placed in it vertically on the middle monster space of her duel disk.

"First, I'll summon my Water Minotaur in attack mode," she announced as a creature of the body of a man appeared on the field with a blue loin cloth round his waist, covering up his modesty and like the Minotaur of Greek Mythology, he also had the head of a bull, the bull's head appeared to be entirely made out of water with the only organic parts being the eyeballs, which had blue irises.

The Water Minotaur (1000/1000) clenched and then opened its right hand and a sword that looked to be made entirely out of water appeared in the hand that had just opened and the Water Minotaur wrapped its fingers round the handle before dropping into an attack stance and brought its other hand to grasp the water sword as well. Now the Water Minotaur held the sword with both hands.

"And next, I'll play the spell card, Double Summon," the bluenette went on as she took the Double Summon card, which had the image of a long-haired man decked in black and grey armour holding up a staff horizontally with both hands with white energy coming down at either side of him as he appeared to be shouting against with a black sky with lightning in the background, though the energy to his right had not yet reached the ground and in front of the man was a monster in a defensive position that looked suspiciously like Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts and she then inserted it into the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle open.

The card then appeared on the field and started to glow.

"With this card, I am allowed to normal summon an additional monster this turn," Amanda explained as she took her Nightmare Penguin card and place it facedown horizontally in the monster space to the left of the one that Water Minotaur occupied and the card then appeared on the field, "And since it's a water-attribute monster, my Water Minotaur gains five hundred extra attack points, for you see Water Minotaur gains five hundred attacks for each water-attribute and aqua-type monsters out on the field."

The Water Minotaur (1700/1000) grunted as it tensed up, feeling the increase in strength that the other monster gave it.

"Hold on, you said five hundred extra attack points, but its attack points have got up by seven hundred," Abigail pointed out as she noticed the two hundred extra attack points more than the blue-haired girl had stated.

"That's the effect of my facedown defence monster," Amanda stated with a smile, "All water-attribute monsters gain two hundred extra attack points whenever it's summoned to the field. Care to guess what it is?"

Abigail shook her head, feeling rather unnerved at the bluenette's tone. She was smart and she had already deduced the answer as she scanned her brain, remembering the various kinds of Duel Monsters monster cards and their effects, but she really was not in the mood for humouring Amanda.

"Just finish your turn," she declared in a serious tone.

"As you wish, my dear Abigail," Amanda said with what sounded like a childish giggle as she reached for her Water Wall card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot, "I place one card facedown and that'll finish my turn."

"Huh, you're not bothering with going through with your battle phase?" Abigail asked in a mixture of surprise and suspicion as Amanda's facedown card appeared on the field.

Just what was she up to? Abigail knew that she could have declared an attack since it was the second turn of the duel, but she chose not to; but then again, Abigail had two facedown cards and had Amanda attacked, she would had sprung one of them on her. However, it seemed that Amanda herself was aware of it despite her strange behaviour and had decided to play it safe. Looking into the bluenette's eyes, Abigail could see a rather calculating look as she studied the field and seemed to be weighing up her options. The bespectacled girl had assumed that with Amanda behaving the way she was had meant that she was stupid and would have been paying attention to her and not her moves, meaning that Abigail had expected Amanda to walk blindly into every trap that she set for her, but apparently, she had been mistaken in that regard.

"You have two facedown cards out on the field, silly," Amanda giggled happily, though her tone suggested that Abigail should have already known that, "You would have activated one, if not both of them had I attacked."

Abigail groaned as she shook her head as she watched the blue-haired girl blush in seeming embarrassment. Abigail did not know why, but she felt rather insulted at Amanda's statement. The undertone that she had used seemed to suggest that she was insulting the redhead's intelligence.

"Oh, it's your turn now," Amanda said before Abigail could reply, catching Abigail with her mouth open.

"Fine," the bespectacled girl said as she drew her next card, practically snatching it from the top of her deck and found that it was Monster Reincarnation.

She then reached for her Solar Flare Dragon card and practically slapped it onto the middle monster space of her duel disk.

"I summon Solar Flare Dragon in attack mode," she announced, letting her anger be known as a serpentine dragon with a brown face made entirely of rock and green eyes appeared on the field.

In addition, the dragon itself was made up of fire aside from its face and its underbelly, which was made up of a conglomeration of boulders and two bone like horns at the sides of its head near the back and a row of brown spiked plates running along its backbone. This was Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000).

"And don't forget, thanks to my field spell, his attack points increase by five hundred," Abigail said, beaming in an almost boastful tone.

Solar Flare Dragon (2000/600) roared at Amanda, who just stared at it in awe.

"But its defence points decrease by four hundred," she pointed out simply.

"A small price to pay to get rid of that water headed mutation," Abigail replied as she suddenly pointed at Water Minotaur, "Now, Solar Flare Dragon, attack Water Minotaur with Flaming Fire Blast."

The Dragon opened its mouth as a ball of fire started to gather between its teeth and then it spat out the fire, which had formed into a ball and sent it hurtling towards Water Minotaur.

"In case you've forgotten, I have a facedown card on the field and now, I activate my Water Wall trap card," Amanda announced as she pushed a button on her duel disk and the holographic representation of her facedown card rose up revealing the image was a huge wall of water and an army of knights at the bottom trying to slash their way through, but to no avail as it was clear that the wall was solid despite being made out of water.

An identical wall of water rose up from the ground in front of the length of Amanda's field and Solar Flare Dragon's fireball slammed into it and was doused out of existence before the wall of water retreated back into the ground.

"Every time an aqua-type or water-attribute monster is targeted by an opposing monster, my water wall prevents the targeted monster from being destroyed and also reduces all battle damage to zero," Amanda explained as she suddenly beamed with pride, "Oh, and this is a continuous trap, so you can't target any of my monsters since they're mostly water-attribute monsters."

"Fine, I end my turn," Abigail fumed, feeling rather infuriated that she had walked right into Amanda's trap, but then smirked, "Oh, and in case you don't know, Solar Flare Dragon's special ability allows him to deal five hundred points of direct damage to you, come the end phase of my turn."

No sooner had she finished talking, Solar Flare Dragon let lose another fireball, only this one went straight towards Amanda, whose eyes widened in shock as she saw the oncoming fireball, which slammed into her before she could raise her arms in defence.

**Abigail**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 3500

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Amanda screamed as she felt the phantom pain and in truth, if she had not known that it was a hologram, she would have believed that she was genuinely being burned.

However, afterwards, she just regained her composure and dusted herself off before bursting into a rather excitable grin and winked at Abigail, making the redhead feel even more uncomfortable.

"Nice move, Abi, I can call you Abi, can't I?" the bluenette said with a childish giggle as she flicked her hand through the back of her hair.

"Only my brother and friends are allowed to call me that," Abigail said, feeling rather infuriated at Amanda for how she seemed to act as if she was on very familiar terms with her despite having just met and Abigail could clearly state that this girl was definitely getting on her nerves and she was in no way her friend.

"You really should calm down," Amanda said, her tone suddenly taking a serious edge to it, "I don't want you walking into every trap I lay out and for this duel to be one-sided. It wouldn't be fair if I won because my opponent was too blinded by her anger. Anyway, that was a nice move. Despite my trap, you were able to use you monster's special ability to deal damage to me anyway."

"Thanks for the compliment," Abigail said in surprise; clearly astonished at how Amanda's tone became more serious one minute and then reverted back to its usual playfulness the next.

"Anytime," Amanda said as she puckered her lips and appeared to blow a kiss at the bespectacled girl, causing Abigail's fury to return, "Anyway, It's my turn now and I draw."

She then drew her next card, which turned out to be Levia-Dragon – Daedalus.

"This'll come in handy later," the bluenette thought to herself, "But not right now. I'll wait to see what else Abigail's got to offer before I spring this on her."

She then reached for her A Legendary Ocean card, which had the image of a sunken city with a few fish swimming in the sea and the sun shining above the surface on it.

"This'll deal with her field spell," Amanda continued to explain to herself in her thoughts, "Besides; I'm more comfortable in the water."

"I activate the field spell, A Legendary Ocean," she announced allowed, showing the card image to Abigail before she inserted it into the field slot of her duel disk, "And you know what that means, don't you?"

Abigail's eyes widened as the scenery generated by her field spell started to crumble and fall apart as it was slowly being replaced by sunken city depicted in the image of Amanda's field spell and also it appeared as if they were surrounded by water. All in all, it appeared as if they were indeed duelling underwater and the field slot of Abigail's duel disk automatically opened up and she took the card out before discarding it to the graveyard.

"In Duel Monsters whenever a field spell is played and there's already a field spell in play, then the first field spell is automatically sent to the graveyard," Amanda explained as the image of her card appeared to come to life around them.

Solar Flare Dragon (1300/800) and Fox Fire (100/0) both groaned in disapproval at having lost their extra attack points and seemed to lose two hundred points worth of their original points and Water Minotaur (1900/1200) roared as his attack and defence points increased even further.

"If you're familiar with the field spell, Umi, then you should know that this card is treated as Umi whenever it's in play and all water-attribute monsters gain two hundred extra attack and defence points and all water-attribute monsters in both players hands have their levels decreased by one," Amanda explained, must to Abigail's fury.

"I know perfectly well what it does!" the redhead snapped furiously, rather infuriated that Amanda was giving her lectures on topics she knew already, but upon realising that her temper was getting too high, she started to take really deep breathes in an attempt to calm herself.

"Touchy," Amanda said as she noted Abigail's attempt to calm down, "Anyway, I'll flip my facedown monster from defence mode into attack mode."

She then took her facedown Nightmare Penguin (900/1800) and flipped it and moved it into a vertical position and the facedown horizontal card on the field glowed for a moment before appearing to transform into a blue and white penguin with dark greenish black feet, yellow busy eyebrows and red eyes. However, what made this penguin stand out was that it was dressed in a white shirt underneath a purple waistcoat with a red bowtie round its neck. It also had a black coat and a black top hat sitting on its head.

"And thanks to a Legendary Ocean, his attack points go up," Amanda announced as Nightmare Penguin (1100/2000) appeared to grin as if attack and defence points went up, "And thanks to his flip-effect, I can choose a card that you have out on the field and send it back to your hand and I choose the facedown card on the right."

Abigail groaned and she removed the facedown card on her left, which was to Amanda's right and was relieved to find that it was Negate Attack and not Backfire, which could deliver five hundred points of damage to Amanda when activated. On the field, the facedown holographic representation of the card that Abigail had just removed started to glow and then transform into a stream of energy that appeared to travel up to Abigail's hand, enveloping the card as she added it to her hand.

"Now, Nightmare Penguin, attack Abigail's Fox Fire," Amanda said as the Nightmare Penguin waddled over to the small humanoid fox and then deliver a rather fierce peck to its head with its peck, causing the fox to shatter into triangles and then vanish, but since it was in defence mode, Abigail took no damage.

"You activated my trap, Backfire," Abigail said with a smirk as she pushed the activation button on her duel disk and her facedown card rose up, revealing the image of a bald headed monster that looked to be made of rock with blue and white striped sleeves and green hands and he appeared to be doing a karate-style chop to what looked to be a giant monster made entirely of reddish coloured rocks, "Whenever a fire-attribute monster on my side of the field is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can inflict five hundred points worth of damage on you."

The card then started to glow and a fireball suddenly shot out of it and slammed into Amanda, whose eyes widened in shock and surprise.

**Abigail**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 3000

"Wow, again with the fireballs, I have to say that you're full of surprises," Amanda said with a smile, "I take it that your deck relies solely on a burn strategy."

"Uh huh, so don't think that Water Wall trap card's going to protect you because it won't," Abigail said with a smirk, "Oh and I should tell you that my Backfire trap card is a continuous trap card like your Water Wall, so destroy my monsters all you want. I may not be able to destroy your monsters thanks to your Water Wall, but like they say, there's more than one way to skin a cat."

"That's incredible," Amanda said in awe as she gave Abigail a look of admiration, "So with Backfire on the field, plus any effects your monsters may have will essentially chip away at my life points since you can't get at my monsters; a true burn strategy. However, there's one fatal flaw in your plan."

"And what's that?" Abigail asked, not sounding in the least bit upset as she knew that her strategy did indeed have its weaknesses, but she decided that she would humour the bluenette.

"You'll have to either stop me from damaging your life points or at least minimise the damage if you want to last long enough to get my life points down to zero," Amanda said with a smirk and then winked at Abigail, causing the redhead's anger to return, but this time, she held it in, "In any case, I'll continue with my battle phase by having my Water Minotaur take out your Solar Flare Dragon."

No sooner had she finished, Water Minotaur jumped over to the Solar Flare Dragon and brought its water sword down on the fire beast, causing it to roar in pain before shattering and disappearing.

**Abigail**: 3400 – **Amanda**: 3000

"Oh and when Water Minotaur destroys a monster, it doesn't go to the graveyard, meaning your Backfire trap doesn't activate," Amanda said, greatly surprising the bespectacled girl, "Instead, the destroyed monster is summoned on my side of the field and becomes a water-attribute monster."

"What!" Abigail exclaimed in surprise as she threw her Solar Flare Dragon card over to Amanda, who took it and placed it on the monster space to the other side of Water Minotaur from the one that Nightmare Penguin occupied.

Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000) appeared on Amanda's side of field next to Water Minotaur (2400/1200) whose attack points increased due to the fiery dragon now being treated as a water-attribute monster and since Solar Flare Dragon (1900/1200) was now a water-attribute monster, its attack and defence points had risen in accordance with A Legendary Ocean's effect as well as Nightmare Penguin's effect, which boasted its attack points even more by a further two hundred. However, despite now being a water-attribute monster, Solar Flare Dragon's appearance had not changed at all.

"Now, Solar Flare Dragon, attack your former mistress directly," Amanda commanded as she pointed at Abigail, who simply raised her arms in defence as Solar Flare Dragon hurled a fireball at her.

The fireball slammed into her and sent her stumbling aback a few steps, but she eventually managed to right herself.

**Abigail**: 1500 – **Amanda**: 3000

"Luckily for you, any monster that is revived on my side of the field due to Water Minotaur's effect has its own effect is negated," Amanda said with a beaming grin of triumphant, "So don't worry about losing more life points this turn due to your former monster's effect and with that, I end my turn."

"And that enables me to activate Fox Fire's special ability," Abigail announced with a smirk, "For you see whenever Fox Fire's on the field and he attacks or is attacked and sent to the graveyard, then I can summon it back to the field."

The Fox Fire card that she had discarded to the graveyard suddenly ejected from the graveyard slot and Abigail placed it on the same monster space that it had been occupying before and Fox Fire (300/200) reappeared on the field in defence mode and then groaned as A Legendary Ocean's effect kicked in due to the fact that it was a pyro-type monster and that the field spell was treated as Umi, which reduced the attack and defence points of any machine-type and pyro-type monsters by two hundred. Fox Fire (100/0) looked towards the opposing field, feeling a little nervous.

"Not bad," Amanda said with a nod, "You were able to bring your monster back."

She then followed up with a wave to Abigail, who looked ready to shout before regaining her composure and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Okay, Abigail, calm down," she told herself in her thoughts, "You're letting her get to you and if you let her do that then she's going to win."

She had to admit that that was true. She was letting Amanda's strange behaviour get on her nerves and because of it, she had attacked without taking Amanda's facedown, which had turned out to be Water Wall into account and now she found herself unable to declare an attack on the bluenette's monsters; relying solely on the life points draining effects from her own monsters to chip away at Amanda's life points. However, like Amanda had said, the fatal flaw in that strategy was trying to last long enough till her life points did fall to zero. She had noted that Amanda was smarter than she appeared when she foregone her first turn's battle phase due to the two facedown cards on the opposite side of the field and she did rile the redhead up when she told her why she had not bothered conducting her battle phase since Abigail believed that she was insulting her intelligence. Amanda was indeed smart. The fact that she had gained the lead due to Abigail's reckless turn and failing to take her Water Wall card into account was proof of that.

"Wait, could her strange behaviour be simply an act to throw me off my game?" she thought as her eyes widened upon realising that possibility.

Amanda, who had been studying her opponent carefully for the entire duel despite her behaviour noticed the bespectacled girl's eyes widening and then gave a rather intrigued nod as she realised that Abigail had just figured her behaviour out, though she would not deny that Abigail herself was beautiful, but it was fun flirting with her to throw her off her game. However, now that Abigail had figured her out, it meant that she had to get serious since she probably would no longer be affected by her behaviour, but that did not mean that she could still have some fun with her in maintaining her behaviour.

"Okay, it's my turn," Abigail announced as she drew a card, which turned out to be Pot of Greed, causing her to smirk as she placed it in the far left spell/trap slot, "I activate the spell card, Pot of Greed."

The card appeared on the field before the image on the card seemed to jump out of it and then laugh as Abigail drew her two additional cards, which turned out to be Mystical Space Typhoon and a second Solar Flare Dragon.

"As you know, Pot of Greed allows me to draw two cards from my deck and next, I'll play the spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Water Wall card," the redhead continued to explain as she inserted the Mystical Space Typhoon card into the spell/trap slot to the right of the one she had inserted the Pot of Greed card into.

The Mystical Space Typhoon card appeared one the field and a really strong blew out of it, causing the Water Wall card on the opposite side to move slightly before it shattered.

"My Water Wall!" Amanda exclaimed in surprise as she clearly had not expected Abigail to come up with such a move.

"And next, I'll summon a second Solar Flare Dragon to the field in attack mode," Abigail went on as she explained her turn, bringing Amanda back from her shock.

She then placed her Solar Flare Dragon card in the monster space to the left of the one that Fox Fire was currently occupying, causing the Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000) to appear on the field and let out an almighty roar. However, afterwards it then let out a groan as it felt the effect of A Legendary Ocean take effect.

"Oh sure, thanks to your field spell he's two hundred attack points weaker, but he still has enough attack points to deal with your Nightmare Penguin," Abigail said as she pointed at said penguin, "Now Solar Flare Dragon, fry that bird."

Solar Flare Dragon (1300/800) responded by opening its mouth and hurling a fireball towards the tuxedo-wearing penguin and Nightmare Penguin's eyes appeared to bulge out of their sockets as it saw the oncoming attack before the fireball slammed into it and caused it to scream and shatter.

**Abigail**: 1500 – **Amanda**: 2800

"And then I'll place one card facedown and that'll end my turn," Abigail said as she took her Negate Attack card that Amanda had returned to her hand with Nightmare Penguin's flip effect and placed it in the spell/tap slot it had been occupying before.

As its holographic representation appeared on the field, Water Minotaur (1700/1200) and the Solar Flare Dragon (1700/1200) on Amanda's side of the field both groaned as they lost the extra attack points that Nightmare Penguin's presence had provided them and Water Minotaur losing the five hundred additional attack points that its own ability awarded it since Nightmare Penguin was a water-attribute monster..

"And don't forget my Solar Flare Dragon's effect," the redhead added with a smirk as the Solar Flare Dragon hurled another fireball at Amanda, but this time, the bluenette was prepared as she raised her arms in front of her as the fireball hit.

**Abigail**: 1500 – **Amanda**: 2300

"Nicely done," Amanda commented, giving Abigail praise for managing to destroy her Water Wall card, "But don't think that it's over. I still have the lead in this duel."

"Just take your turn," Abigail said in an impatient tone, "It's past curfew and I'd rather not get detention 'cause of you."

"In that case, if you are discovered, then you shouldn't have confronted me," Amanda pointed out as she drew her next card, "Besides, if I win this duel, you won't be going back until I've gotten what I came here for."

Abigail shuddered as she felt a chill creep down her spine as she thought of the possible implications of what the blue-haired girl had just said.

"J-j-just what is it that you want?" the bespectacled girl asked Amanda as she struggled to regain her composure.

"I'll tell you once this duel is over," Amanda said with a devious and mischievous smirk that did nothing to sooth Abigail's unease.

Of course, Amanda knew what the redhead was thinking and despite her behaviour seeming to confirm this, Amanda had no intentions of doing what Abigail believed that she was going to do to her. What she intended to do was use Abigail as a bargaining chip for when she confronted Chancellor Sheppard; nothing more. In any case, she looked down at her card, which by an amazing coincidence happened to be her own Pot of Greed card.

"Anyway, I play the spell card, Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two additional cards from my deck," she went on as she looked at her cards, which turned out to be Monster Reborn and Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, "Cool, huh? Just what are the chances I managed to draw the same card you did last turn?"

"Just finish your move already," Abigail said impatiently.

"Okay, I'll then summon Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness to the field in attack mode," the bluenette announced with glee as she placed her Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness card on the monster space to the left of the one Nightmare Penguin had been occupying, "Now normally, since he's a level-five monster, I'd have to sacrifice a monster already out on the field, but as I already explained, A Legendary Ocean lowers the level of all water-attribute monsters in my hand by one; meaning my monster is now a level-four monster and I can summon him without having to sacrifice him."

Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2100/1200) turned out to be a huge orca whale with was appeared to be the metal flat surface of a battleship welded onto the top of its head with six spikes in a three by three pattern at a slight diagonal angle at either end and a bridge structure built in front of and at the sides of its huge dorsal fin and a green crane to the left. It also had what appeared to be a green torpedo shaped like a fish with red fins attached to its underbelly.

"And thanks to A Legendary Ocean's effect, his attack and defence points go up by two hundred," Amanda went on as Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2300/1400) roared as it felt its strength increase, "And don't forget, since it's a water-attribute monster, it gives my Water Minotaur five hundred extra points."

Water Minotaur (2200/1200) tensed up as it felt another power up come on due to the orca's presence and then Amanda took her Monster Reborn card and inserted into the spell/trap slot behind the vacant monster space that Nightmare Penguin had occupied.

"And I play Monster Reborn to revive my Nightmare Penguin," Amanda continued explaining her turn as the image on the card appeared on the field and emitted a red glow before Nightmare Penguin (900/1800) appeared to come up out of the ground as Amanda took the card after it was ejected from the graveyard and place it in the monster space that it had been occupying before, "And since he's back, all water-attribute monster gain two hundred extra attack points and my Water Minotaur gains an additional five hundred due to its own special ability and Nightmare also gains two hundred extra attack and defence points."

Nightmare Penguin (1100/2000) once again appeared to grin and the Solar Flare Dragon (1900/1200) Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2500/1400) and Water Minotaur (2900/1200) all gained their additional points.

"Now, Water Minotaur, attack her Solar Flare Dragon with Water Sword Slash," the bluenette commanded as she pointed at Abigail's Solar Flare Dragon and Water Minotaur jumped over to the Solar Flare Dragon.

"Not so fast for I activate my Negate Attack trap card," Abigail announced as she pushed the trap/spell facedown activation button on her duel disk, causing her facedown card to rise

The card displayed the image of a bluish green background with a red circle and a dark purplish black hole that was illustrated as if there was spinning. In the centre of the hole was a bright light with three light streams running out from it; again illustrated as if they were spinning and the light in the card appeared to shoot out at Water Minotaur as it brought its sword down on the fiery dragon, but the ball of white energy slammed into the Water Minotaur's chest and send it back to its original position on the field.

"When this card is activated, you're forced to end your battle phase," Abigail explained, to which Amanda nodded, looking rather impressed.

"I gather that that was the card that I returned to your hand using Nightmare Penguin's flip effect?" Amanda asked curiously and Abigail nodded.

"That's right," she confirmed, "It had been returned to my hand, so I figured that I'd just reuse it."

"Impressive, I have to say that I never thought that you'd do something like that," the blue-haired girl complimented with a look of admiration towards the bespectacled redhead, "Anyway, since I can't do anything else, I end my turn."

Abigail then drew her next card, which turned out to be Card of Sanctity, which caused her to smirk before she inserted it into the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle one.

"I play the spell card, Card of Sanctity, which allows us both to draw until we're holding six cards, she said as she drew four additional cards from her deck and Amanda drew an additional four cards from her own deck as she also had two cards in her hand as the cad appeared on the field and then the image started to glow, indicating that it had activated.

Looking at her hand, she found that she had drawn a third Solar Flare Dragon, DNA Transplant, Double Summon and Fire Trooper and looking over her hand, she realised that she still had the Fissure card that she had drawn before her first turn.

"Excellent, this'll do nicely," she said as she looked towards the bluenette and smirked, "I think I have most of the cards that'll guarantee your downfall."

"Oh really, then by all means, show me," Amanda dared with a smile and curious look in her eyes.

"With pleasure," Abigail said obligingly as she reached for her Fissure card, with depicted the image of a diagonal horizon moving upwards from left to right with the top being the blue sky and the bottom being a barren wasteland with a fissure near the bottom of the image and the finger from a person's right hand holding onto the ledge of the fissure with the left arm rising even higher as it depicted a person trying to climb out and inserted it into the middle spell/trap slot, "With this, I can destroy the monster on your side of the field that has the lowest attack points and guess who that is."

Amanda raised an eyebrow as she witnessed a hole appear beneath Nightmare Penguin's feet and Nightmare Penguin nervously looked down as it no longer felt the ground underneath its feet and then started to freak out and tried to run towards the edge of the hole for a few moments before gravity started to take effect and Nightmare Penguin shrieked as it fell into the hole. It was reminiscent of a scene from an old Loony Toons cartoon. However, instead of a thud, a bright light seemed to shine up from down within the hole before it vanished.

Water Minotaur (2700/1200), Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2300/1400) and the Solar Flare Dragon (1700/1200) that Amanda controlled all groaned at losing their two hundred attack point bonus that Nightmare Penguin had provided. Amanda just frowned at losing her monster a second time, but shrugged it off as she was curious to see what Abigail was going to do next.

"Next I'll summon another Solar Flare Dragon to the field," Abigail announced as slapped the third Solar Flare Dragon card on the monster space on the other side of the one that Fox Fire currently occupied, though she placed the card horizontally, indicating that she had summoned it in defence mode.

The Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000) did appear on the field, though had coiled part of its body in front of its face in a defensive position, though it groaned in discomfort as it felt A Legendary Ocean's effect drain it of some of its strength.

"And next I'll play a card that you played on your first turn, Double Summon," the redhead went on as she reached for her Double Summon card and placed it in the spell/trap slot behind the monster space where she had summoned her third Solar Flare Dragon and the card appeared on the field and started to glow, "As you know, this allows me to perform a second normal summon."

She then reached for her Fire Trooper (1000/1000) card and placed in in the monster space beside the one that her Solar Flare Dragon (1300/800) to the left occupied and placed it in a horizontal position as she decided to summon it in defence mode.

"And my second monster is Fire Trooper," she announced as a strange looking monster appeared on the field with its arms crossed and in a kneeling position.

The monster itself was dressed with black armour over its torso with golden outlines the armour even provided a metal guars for the crotch and hip areas. It also had shoulder guards with four purple spikes, two at either side curving outwards. The monster also wore a purple cape that looked torn at the bottom and had white sleeves down to its elbows and white trousers down to its knees. There were also two black arm guards running from the elbows to the wrists and black skin guards surrounding the lower legs from the knees down to the ankles and the monster had dark purple feet with black spiked talons. However, what made this monster stand out was that its hands were surrounded by flames and its head was made entirely out of fire with only marking depicting where its eyes were and the fire formed two horns at the top.

"When he's summoned to the field, I can send him directly to the graveyard to inflict a thousand points of damage to your life points," the bespectacled girl said as she immediately removed her Fire Trooper card from its monster space and sent it to the graveyard.

On the field, Fire Trooper brought its hands together and then pushed them towards Amanda and the flames surrounding its hands shot towards her in the form of a fireball and then Fire Trooper seemed to transform into energy and then the energy quickly moved into Abigail's graveyard slot.

"Not again," Amanda groaned as she raised her arms in front of her in an X formation as she braced herself for the fireball, which slammed into her a few moments later.

**Abigail**: 1500 – **Amanda**: 1300

"I'll then move my Solar Flare Dragon that's in attack mode into defence mode and that'll end my turn," Abigail said as she moved her card into a horizontal position and the dragon on the field fell into the same pose as its partner, "And don't forget about Solar Flare Dragon's effect when it come to the end phase of a turn and since I have two of them…"

She then trailed off while smirked as her two Solar Flare Dragons prepared to unleash their attacks.

"I lose another thousand life points," Amanda finished with a nod as she once again raised her arms in front of her to defend herself as the two dragons hurled their attacks at her in unison.

"Man, this is gonna hurt," the blue-haired girl thought and the two fireball combined into one and then slammed into her, this time causing her to stumble backwards and slip, which caused her to fall on her back.

**Abigail**: 1500 – **Amanda**: 300

"You were saying about my burn strategy?" Abigail asked gleefully as she realised that she was just one attack away from winning the duel and bringing this intruder to book, "Seems that it's pretty effective to me."

However, Amanda moved to pick herself up and then moved her hand up to her hair and felt around for a few seconds before realising that the last attack had messed up her hair style.

"M-m-my hair," Amanda stuttered for a moment while in shock as she clearly did not expect that last attack to have that effect and was shocked because she prided herself in making her hair perfect and hated it when even a single strand of her hair was out of place, "My hair, it's messed up."

Normally, Abigail would have chosen this moment to taunt her opponent; especially since she did not like the bluenette's flirtatious behaviour towards her and would have seen this as the perfect opportunity to gain some payback, but looking at Amanda's reaction and her shocked expression; something told the redhead that taunting the bluenette would be a bad idea and she could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of nervous fear build up from the pit of her stomach.

"It took me over five hours to get my hair like that," Amanda continued to ramble on to herself, still in shock and disbelief, "And now it's messed up. Who knows how long it'll take to get it back to the way it was."

"Crap, why do I get the feeling that I just sealed my fate," Abigail thought looking at Amanda with a nervously fearful look in her eyes.

However, upon coming back to reality and noticing Abigail, the bluenette surprisingly burst out in a rather cheerful, yet eerie smile that did nothing to ease the bespectacled girl's growing distress and only seemed to heighten it even further.

"Oh, Abigail," Amanda spoke in a spookily cheerful tone that sent shivers down Abigail's spine, "I think that it's time that I end this duel and I have just the card in my hand that'll do it."

Abigail flinched at the sinister sweetness that was clearly apparent in the bluenette's voice as Amanda drew her next card.

"Oh yes, this duel is over," Amanda continued in that same frighteningly sweet tone, "I have to say that you duelled pretty well and have come close to beating me. You truly are worthy of attending this academy and probably worthy of your rank and I'm sure that if you had your next turn, you'd win the duel, but unfortunately for you, this turn is the last turn of the duel."

She then looked over her hand which consisted of Tornado Wall from her opening hand, Levia-Dragon – Daedalus, which she drew on her second turn, Legendary Fisherman, Fish Depth Charge, Umiiruka, Hydra Viper, all which she had drawn thank to Abigail's Card of Sanctity spell card and Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus, which she had just drawn. There was a rule saying that a duellist was only allowed to have a maximum of six cards in their hand while in a duel, but that only applied at the end phase. A duellist was allowed to have more than six cards in his or her hand at once during their turn, but if they still had more than six cards in their hand when they declared their end phase, then they were required to discard the extra cards to graveyard from the last one they had drawn and working back until they had six cards, so even though Amanda had seven cards in her hand, she was not breaking any rules since having more than six cards in their hand at the end of their turn was rare since they normally played some of the cards in their hand during their turn, freeing up space.

"P-p-prove i-i-it," Abigail stuttered, not really feeling all that confident as she subconsciously took a step backwards, knowing full well that the bluenette had every intention of doing just that.

"With pleasure," Amanda said obligingly as she took her Levia-Dragon –Daedalus card and then removed her Water Minotaur from its monster space and discarded it to the graveyard, "I now sacrifice my Water Minotaur to summon Levia-Dragon – Daedalus."

On the field Water Minotaur disappeared in the same manner that all tribute monsters that were sacrificed to summon higher level monsters disappeared and Amanda placed Levia-Dragon – Daedalus's card on the same monster space that Water Minotaur had occupied and then the Solar Flare Dragon that Amanda had taken control of shattered as soon as Water Minotaur had left the field.

"Oh and just so you know, whenever Water Minotaur leaves the field, any monster that was brought over to my side via his effect is automatically destroyed," Amanda explained, deciding to give Abigail an explanation as to why Solar Flare Dragon had shattered as she removed its card and discarded it to her graveyard despite it being Abigail's card.

After Solar Flare Dragon had shattered a new serpentine dragon had appeared on the field only this one was bigger and blue in colour with yellow eye, spines running along its back with red webbing in between. It also had red claws; three on each of its four feet and two red spike; one underneath the knee joint of each of its front legs and two more; one at each of at the shoulder joints as well as two more; again one at each of the hip joints of its hind legs it also had six red fish like fins; two at the shoulder joints, two at the hip joints and two sticking out of the sides of its head as if they were ears. However, what made this dragon stand out was that it was wearing a dark blue metal helmet shaped like a dragon's head on top of its head. The helmet had a peck like shape at the front along with a green orb sitting at the top and underneath at either side was a red eye making it appear as if the dragon had two sets of eyes. Three segments ran along the back of the dragon neck, each coming out from under the other with each possessing a small brown orb at each of their centres and then three larger armoured segments ran along the beginning of the dragon's back, the last two possessing two spikes; one at either side. The dragon also had four red spikes; two at either side of its tail.

"Like him?" Amanda said in a rather mockingly sweet tone as Levia-Dragon – Daedalus (2600/1500) roared at Abigail and Abigail herself felt as if the monster was a physical manifestation of its mistress's rage over having her hair messed up, "This is the monster that's going to win me the duel."

Levia-Dragon-Daedalus (2800/1700) continued to roar at the bespectacled girl as the effect of A Legendary Ocean rose its attack and defence power.

"And now I activate his special ability, which involves sacrificing my A Legendary Ocean card to enable Levia-Dragon – Daedalus to destroy all other cards out on the field aside from himself," Amanda said as she pushed the button that opened the field spell slot on her duel disk and removed A Legendary Ocean before sending it to the graveyard.

On the field, the scenery that was being generated by A Legendary Ocean faded out of existence, returning the scenery to normal and Levia-Dragon – Daedalus (2600/1500) fired a purple energy beam from its mouth and moved it along all of Abigail's cards, causing them to shatter and they turned it on Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2100/1200), causing it to shatter as well. Only Levia-Dragon – Daedalus remained and Abigail's eyes widened as she realised that she was now defenceless and Amanda had a rather satisfactory smirk on her face as she pointed towards the redhead.

"Daedalus, attack her directly and end this duel," she said simply and Levia-Dragon – Daedalus let out a roar of acknowledgement before lunging over to Abigail and slammed its head right into her, sending her flying backwards.

**Abigail**: 0 – **Amanda (winner)**: 300

However, as Abigail had subconsciously jumped backwards with the phantom sensation of being hit by Daedalus, she had jumped back into a tree and hit the back of her head off its trunk, causing her glasses to fall off and Abigail herself was rendered unconscious.

"Well now, that was rather invigorating," Amanda said as her Levia-Dragon – Daedalus hologram vanished as she deactivated her duel disk and walked over to the unconscious Abigail, "I have to hand it to ya, Abigail, you were quite the challenge. In fact, you're perhaps the second… no third person to successfully manage to put up a fight against me, though unlike those other two, you didn't beat me. However, as per the wager of this duel, since you lost, you're now mine until I get what I came here for and you're going to be my bargaining chip for that. If Duel Academy wants you back, then they'll have to enrol me into their ranks and until they agree, you're my prisoner."

She then knelt down and picked up Abigail's glasses and examined them to see if they were broken, but was thankful that they were okay and then she took Abigail's Solar Flare Dragon card that she had claimed during the duel and picked up the cards that had been in Abigail's hand when she had lost before removing the cards in her graveyard and then took Abigail's deck from her duel disk's deck slot before adding the cards she had picked up to it and then she put the completed deck back in the deck slot.

"You probably think very poorly of me due to what I'm doing, but I assure you that I'm no thief," she said with a frown, expecting that Abigail would now hate her for what she was doing, "And I have absolutely no intentions of doing what you probably think I'm going to do to you. Even I know where the line's drawn and to cross it would be unforgivable, even by my standards."

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><p>Meanwhile, at the Slifer Red Dorm, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair had just gotten into their pyjamas, which consisted of a pair of dark pink trousers and light pink sweater with dark pink sleeves collar band and were getting ready for bed. Yumi and Blair had already climbed into their respective beds and Euphemia was about to follow suit, but she suddenly stopped and turned her head towards the door as a rather uneasy expression appeared on her face as she suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong.<p>

"Huh, Euphie-chan, what's wrong?" Yumi asked upon noticing her friend's hesitation at going into her bed.

"I don't know why," Euphemia replied as she continued to look towards the door while contemplating on whether or not to get back into her clothes and go out to patrol the island to see if anything was wrong, "But I suddenly got this horrible feeling that something's not right. Something seems wrong all of a sudden."

"Oh it's probably nothing," Yumi said dismissively, shaking her head, "You're probably jumpy from the defeat you handed Stella yesterday."

"It was actually two days ago," Euphemia replied as she saw that according to the alarm clock, it was after midnight, meaning that it was the following day, "And why would I be worried about Stella?"

"Because you beat her, again, and surely you know that Stella's not the sort of girl that'll let it lie," Yumi said with a hint of fear and surprise in her voice; surprised that Euphemia did not seem to take Stella all that seriously, but she just told herself that the pinkette was subconsciously suppressing her fear and that's what was getting to her.

"I know that," Euphemia confirmed as she admitted that she was indeed aware of the fact that things between her and the cruel teal-haired girl were far from over, "But why would I be afraid of her?"

"Because next time you both duel, she'll be aiming to kill you," Yumi said in a fearful tone, "Don't think that she won't. When I managed to free myself from her when I fell for her phony "love-letter", she ended up chasing me with a knife. She wasn't looking to intimidate me with it. If it wasn't for you and Zukasu showing up when you both did, I probably would've been killed."

She was still worried about Stella, that much was certain. However, surely Stella could not have come up with her revenge plan this soon. That must be what the pinkette was worried about; even if it was on a subconscious level.

"Yeah, that must be it," the Japanese brunette told herself.

"Maybe you're just subconsciously fearful that she's already thought up of a revenge plan," she said aloud with a nod of confirmation, though it was mainly to assure herself that that was what the pinkette was fretting over, "But don't worry, I highly doubt she's already got a plan in place already."

"Y-yeah, right, that must be it," Euphemia said with a nod, though she was still unsure.

She did not know why, but something was definitely not right and she highly doubted that it had anything to do with Stella. No matter how hard she tried to dismiss it and tell herself that Yumi was probably right, part of her mind just would not let it lie. However, she knew that telling Yumi that she doubted that it was Stella would do no good and probably lead to an argument. Looking up at Blair in the top bunk, the pinkette could see that she had already fallen asleep and was out like a light and no doubt, arguing with Yumi would probably just wake her up, so she decided to drop it so as not to disturb the bluenette.

"Yeah, Yumi's probably right," she said to herself with a nod, "Maybe I'm more worried about Stella than I'd like to admit. After all, I did tell her that she would have to kill me to get rid of me."

Yeah, that was it, not only was she afraid that Stella did indeed already have her next plan lined up; she was also afraid that Stella may very well decided to take her statement about having to kill her to get rid of her to heart and really kill her. She knew very well that had she and Zukasu had not shown up that night Yumi had inadvertently walked into the teal-haired girl's trap then Stella would have definitely killed her if she had managed to catch up with her and she did not doubt that Stella would try to kill her either despite her dismissals of the issue. Yeah, that was it, it had to be. That's why she was so worried.

However, as she climbed into her bed and lay down, part of her just refused to let the notion go and even telling herself that it was Stella seemed to only heighten the feeling that something was indeed not right and that she was lying to herself in a feign attempt to dismiss it. Deciding that it must be because she was tired, she decided to wait until the next day… or rather earlier in the day when everyone was up to investigate. Unfortunately for her, the feeling just refused to go away and kept nagging her mind, which kept her awake.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in the Ra Yellow Boys' Dorm, James and Terrance were both fast asleep. Terrance had fallen asleep relatively quickly, but James had spent most of the time awake worrying about Abigail as he kept telling himself that they should never have left her on her own and no matter how much he tried to let Terrance's reassurances that his sister would be alright calm his mind, part of him just outright refused to let the issue lie. Like Euphemia, he was currently plagued with the notion that something was not right, but unlike Euphemia, he had a fair idea that it had something to do with Abigail. However, somehow, despite his worry over the bespectacled redhead, sleep had managed claim him; though neither he nor Terrance realised that Abigail had not returned to her dorm and was at the mercy of an intruder who was planning on using her as a bargaining chip in order to get enrolled in the Academy.<p>

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><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Abigail wakes up and is shocked to find her hands tied behind her back at the wrists and her legs tied together at the ankles and that she's in a tent.

"_Hey, just what is this?" Abigail demands furiously._

"_My, my, you're so cranky all of a sudden," Amanda says in a creepily happy tone, "You really should learn to calm down."_

"_Calm down!" Abigail snaps furiously, "I'm gonna freakin' kill you when I get free!"_

Amanda, who is also in the tent brushing her hair notices that Abigail's awake before she returns Abigail's glasses to her by putting them on her and then proceeds to explain herself.

"_I'm your bargaining chip for getting you enrolled in Duel Academy?" Abigail said in disbelief, "That plan's just lame. You do realise that Duel Academy's more likely to call the police, don't you?"_

"_They'll have no choice but to enrol me because if they don't I'll just keep you as my prisoner," Amanda says. _

"_I'm just one person and as they say; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Abigail counters, "And what makes you think that you'll get away with this? How will you deal with the police?"_

"_I'm not scared of the cops; I have a wealthy father," Amanda says, though her tone is filled with bitterness at mentioning her father, "Though I'd rather not have to rely on his help. So, I'll just have to think of a plan should the police choose to get in my way."_

Meanwhile, in Doctor Crowler's classroom, the class is shown a presentation of different Duel Monsters cards, which highlights the different effects in the game, but somehow a really embarrassing photograph of Dr Crowler in his birthday suit is shown, causing the entire class's eyes to widen in shock.

"_My eyes, they burn!" someone yells._

"_Oh my, so he really is a guy," Zukasu says, still in shock._

Dr Crowler hurriedly moves onto the next slide, feeling rather embarrassed and humiliated.

"_Oh my, how'd that get in there…?" Dr Crowler says as he calms down, "Never mind, let's never speak of this again."_

Euphemia was the only student who did not see the embarrassing photo as she had nodded off, but once Yumi tell her what happened, she surprisingly stands up for Dr Crowler.

However, upon calming down, she notices that Abigail's absent.

"_I can't believe those people; it's not Dr Crowler's fault, he didn't ask to look like that," Euphemia fumes before noticing Abigail's absence, "Gee, I wonder where Abigail is."_

"_I don't know," Alicia says in a rather distressed tone, "She never came back to the dorm last night."_

"_What!" James says in alarm._

After class, Euphemia confronts Terrance and James about Abigail's absence as Alicia comes and tell them that she never returned the previous night.

"_Oh boy, this is bad," Terrance says in alarm as he worries over what could have happened to his sister._

"_I hate to say, "I told you so"," James says simply._

"_Shut it!" Terrance warns threateningly._

With no choice, Terrance and James explains what happened the previous night. However, the Headmistress of the Ra Girls' Dorm, Reina Shizuki overhears and decides to help.

"_Yes, that is strange, I never saw her at breakfast this morning," Reina says in a worried tone, "Tell you what, why don't we go and look for her? I'll take the wrap for why you all missed your classes."_

"_You'd really do that, Professor Shizuki?" Euphemia asks curiously._

"_Of course, Miss Richardson is a Ra Yellow and therefore under my care," Reina replies._

So Euphemia, Yumi, James, Terrance, Alicia and Reina all go and look for Abigail.

After a while, they all meet in the forest with no such luck, but fortunately, James notices a tent nearby and they all go to investigate.

_"Gee, the J-Man wonders what that could be," James says._

"_Maybe Abigail decided to sleep outdoors," Yumi dumbly suggests._

Once they reach the tent, they find Abigail and Terrance goes to free her, but Amanda suddenly jumps out in front of him.

"_Sorry, I can't have you doing that," Amanda says simply, "She's my ticket to getting into Duel Academy."_

"_Say what?" Terrance says in disbelief, "Now see here, that's my sister you have prisoner."_

Amanda explains herself to the group, which does not go over too well with Reina, Alicia and Terrance.

"_What a lame plan," Terrance says, shaking his head_

"_Yeah, if you think that the Academy will enrol you just because you kidnapped a student then you're sorely mistaken," Reina says in disgust, "I have half a mind to just go and call the police."_

Reina, Terrance, Alicia and James all protest and Amanda says that she'll let Abigail go, so long as one member of the group beats her in a duel.

Euphemia immediately volunteers, but Terrance raises his arm, saying that he'll be the one to duel.

"_Sorry, Euphie, but you'll have to sit this one out," Terrance says in a tone of finality, "Abigail's my sister and anyone who messes with my sister has to answer to me."_

Amanda lays eyes on Euphie as she volunteers and for some reason gets a strange sense of déjà vu from her, but immediately dismisses it when Terrance announces that he's Abigail's brother.

"_So you're her brother, huh?" Amanda said with a hint of excitement, "This ought to be interesting."_

"_You bet I'm her brother," Terrance says enthusiastically, "And I don't care if you're a girl. I'm gonna make you pay for kidnapping my sister."_

"_Well then, bring it on," Amanda challenges. _

"_Be careful, Terry," Abigail warns worryingly, "I've already duelled her and she's no pushover."_

"GAME ON!" both Terrance and Amanda yell in unison.

**Terrance**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

"_You're using a fire-based deck, ha," Amanda scoffs, "Your sister already tried that and failed."_

"_Well, I'm not my sister, am I?" Terrance says confidently._

Terrance manages to win the duel. However, before Amanda can recover the Academy's Disciplinary Action Squad show up and take her into custody.

"_Miss Shizuki called and explained the situation to us," the leader, a woman with brown hair and grey eyes says, "And you'll be detained here until the police come to take you back to the mainland."_

"_Next time: Academy Intruder part 2," Abigail says, feeling rather excited that she's free, "I told you that your plan was lame Amanda."_

Meanwhile, elsewhere in a mansion out in the country, a man sitting on his chair after just having finished having a video conversation with Schneizel is told of Amanda's fate at Duel Academy.

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Levia-Dragon – Daedalus

**Attribute** – Water

**Type** – Sea Serpent/Effect

**Level** – 7

**ATK/DEF** – 2600/1500

**Info** – Send "Umi" of your side of the field to the Graveyard to destroy all cards on the field except this card

"_Wow, that Amanda's Water-Theme deck reminds me of the time I duelled that crazy admiral guy," Jaden says, "Okay he sacrificed Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness to summon Levia-Dragon – Daedalus."_

"_Yeah, I know," the author says, "Makes the Orca summon a total waste, doesn't it?"_

"_Yep, though I'm surprised that this chapter's card is not Water Minotaur, which I can honestly say is a water-variant of Fire-Attribute monster, Gorlag, which Alister of Yu-Gi-Oh's Doma Arc used in his first duel with Kaiba," Jaden points out._

"_Yeah, I know, but Levia-Dragon – Daedalus won Amanda the duel, so that's why it's up instead of Water Minotaur," the author explains._

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><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Another chapter done. Sorry for the delay. I was going to start on the chapter immediately after the Christmas and New Year celebrations were out of the way, but I ended up getting distracted. Anyway, this chapter took my more than a week to write, so I hope it's worth the wait. Also, when referring to the fact that Abigail wears glasses, I originally referred to her as the speckled girl, but I was unsure if that was right and felt that it may be interpreted as a derogatory insult, so I asked my dad and he told me that the term was bespectacled, so I used the find and replace feature to correct it and I realise that I may have used the "speckled" term in previous chapters. I do apologise if I've caused anyone any offence. That was not my intention. Anyway, hopefully it won't be long until the next chapter is out. Also, reading up on the Code Geass wiki article on the Geass Order, according to that, it proposed that the Chinese Federation base was somewhere in the Tengger Desert in Mongolia, so I decided to use that as the location.


	8. Academy Intruder part 2

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Academy Intruder part 2 **

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist), 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names) and most recently from the 25/26th June 2012 the 4K Acquisition subsidiary of Konami. Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

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><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden).

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Summery – <strong>The news of Euphemia's body's disappearance continues to spread throughout the Code Geass World, affecting some more than others. However, back in "Area Eleven", Lelouch has been returned to Ashford Academy with his memories suppressed and altered by his father, the Emperor with the OSI watching over him as they plan on using him as bait to lure out C.C. and one of their agents, Rolo masquerades as his younger brother and who has orders from V.V. to kill Lelouch when he finally regains his memories. However, the more Rolo lives with Lelouch and the more time they spend together, Rolo slowly, but surely starts questioning his commitment to his mission as being with Lelouch has caused him to experience feelings and emotions that he's never experienced before as he remembers his past as an assassin. However, he just can't help but be curious over Euphemia's disappearance despite his lack of empathy over the issue due to the mysterious circumstances in which the body vanished. Meanwhile in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World, Abigail awakens and is shocked to find that she is now Amanda's prisoner and as Amanda explains her motives, Euphemia and the others slowly come to realise that something is wrong when Abigail is notably absent. After confronting James and Terrance over the latter's sister's absence after hearing from her distressed roommate that she never returned to the dorm the previous night, Euphemia, Yumi, Terrance, James, Alicia and the Headmistress of the Ra Girls' Dorm, Reina Shizuki, who happened to overhear them decide to skip the rest of the day's classes to go look for her and once they find her; they're confronted by Amanda who agrees to let her go if one of them can defeat her in a duel. Terrance immediately steps up to the plate, determined to rescue his sister, but Amanda notices Euphemia and somehow seems to have a sense of déjà vu, but dismisses it for the time being to deal with Terrance. Can Terrance succeed in where his sister failed? Will Amanda get her wish of being enrolled at the Academy and just who is the mysterious man that has been informed of her activities and how is he tied in with Schneizel el Britannia?

* * *

><p><strong>Code Geass World –<strong> **Tōkyō** **Settlement, "Area Eleven", Ashford Academy, Rolo's room**

Rolo Lamperouge lay on his bed with his hands clasped behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling as thoughts concerning his recent mission raced through his head. It was a clear night outside with not even the slightest flake of a cloud in the sky and one could have been able to see the stars twinkling in the night if not for the lights from the Tōkyō Settlement obscuring their view. However, despite the fact that it was dark outside, Rolo lay, still in his school uniform with a stone hard cold look in his eyes as many things passed through his mind. However, the one thing that clearly dominated his mind was how his latest mission was so different from any he had previously. Lamperouge was not even his real surname. It was just a cover for his latest mission; a ruse, nothing more.

In truth, Rolo did not know who his parents were. His earliest memories were of being in the Geass Order. He practically grew up in the Geass Order, constantly on the move with all the others whenever the Order decided that they had remained in one place for too long. He remembered how he had practically been conditioned and groomed before receiving his Geass from V.V. when he was only six-years-old. V.V. looked like a child no older than ten, but Rolo knew that in reality he was far much older and wiser than he appeared, for V.V. was really a Code Bearer, a person who possessed what was known as a Code, which pretty must froze the aging process and revived its host whenever they were killed. In short, V.V. was immortal and the Code also gave him the ability to bestow the power of Geass unto others, which he had done with Rolo and so many others. However, each Geass manifested differently depending on the person. Rolo's Geass had the ability to freeze a person's perception of time, effectively rendering them defenceless while under its influence, the targets were basically living statues unable to move and unlike most Geasses, it did not rely on eye contact with the target. The Geass basically produced a sphere of influence that shot out of his eye in all directions and anyone within the sphere of influence would automatically fall under its influence.

"Which makes it the perfect tool to help in assassinations," Rolo mused to himself, though the hard emotionless look on his face did not leave his face.

Unfortunately for Rolo, his Geass did come with a price. While still at the Geass Order, it was through him that the scientists discovered that Geass put a strain on the user's heart. However, as they noted, people with regular healthy hearts were able to cope with the strain as it was nearly unnoticeable; even through prolonged use. However, unfortunately for Rolo, he had been born with heart problems and as a result, he had a very weak heart. His heart was so weak in fact that the strain of using his Geass had caused it to stop every time he activated it. During the initial experiments after receiving his Geass, Rolo remembered on how he had to be resuscitated after his heart stopped and he collapsed. However, rather than get rid of him despite being labelled as a failure, V.V. had sent him to the OSI with the Emperor of Britannia himself pulling strings to get him a position in the intelligence agency since he was still just a child. Due to his weak heart, he could only limit his Geass to short bursts and he had also discovered that the severity of the strain on his heart varied depending on how far the sphere of influence reached. Nevertheless, despite this weakness he had gone on to become one of the best assassins within the OSI, using his Geass as a tool to aid him. His Geass was an effective assassination tool as it enabled him to get close up to his targets, kill them and then escape completely unnoticed and despite his heart problems, he was quite good and though he preferred firearms as his weapon of choice, he was not above using alternatives such as knives or poisons whenever firearms were unavailable.

Rolo could honestly say that he had killed so many people that he had lost count of just exactly how many he had killed. It was his job as an assassin to kill people and he had gotten so used to it that to him, killing people had become as routine as a person brushing their teeth, eating a meal or falling asleep and like no one counted how many time they did each of those things; Rolo did not count the number of people he killed. He really did not care for them anyway. His job was simply to kill them and why the Emperor and the OSI wanted them dead really did not matter to him in the slightest. It was not his place to ask questions and so he did what he was told to do. His body count was high and he remembered when he had been dispatched to deal with William H. Helmsley, a member of Britannia's Senate who had stood in opposition to the House of Lords demoting "Area Eight" to a Correctional Area and he and his supporters were making progress and so Rolo had assassinated him in front of the Tennessee State Legislature in Nashville. That was his highest profile assassination and thanks to his Geass, he had managed to do it out in the open without being seen. He also remembered another target whom he had managed to kill while in a crowded street. Even though his Geass could not reach the entire crowd, he had managed to freeze enough of them closest to him so that they blocked the others' view and had managed to literally melt into them after he had done the deed. He had also managed to assassinate yet another man in front of his family, though he had killed the entire family just for good measure.

He supposed that his childlike innocent looks were the reason that no one suspected him. After all who would suspect a child; especially one as sweet looking and fragile like him. Anyone looking at him definitely would not suspect that he was an assassin. He looked too innocent and fragile and he definitely looked as if bullies would have a field day targeting him. His appearance did help mask his true nature. In fact his appearance was a mask in itself. However, unfortunately for anyone unlucky enough to get on Rolo's bad side, he had gotten so used to killing people that he also saw it as a means of solving all his problems. Whenever someone was causing him problems, his solution was to kill them and that was that and this also included his OSI colleagues. If they got in his way, he would take them out without hesitation. He was devoted to the missions he was given and would go to any lengths to complete them. He did not believe in teamwork and his attitude was so well known that his colleagues despised and feared him; not that he cared. All he was interested in was his mission and how his colleagues felt about him did not matter.

"It's the mission that's truly important," he thought to himself as he remembered the few of his colleagues that had been unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of his wrath throughout his career, "I am totally devoted to my mission and will not hesitate to kill those who come between me and my target… even if they happen to be my allies."

That much was true. Unfortunately, it had gotten him into trouble in the past. He remembered one time when he had accidentally bumped into a really mean-looking man while off-duty and the man had threatened him while demanding that he apologise and he continued to threaten him even after he had apologised since the man was clearly not satisfied and so, Rolo had killed him when it became clear that the man just would not leave him alone and it had gotten him into trouble with the OSI since they did not approve of their agents killing those they had not been told to kill; especially for something so trivial, but Rolo did not like the way his superior was speaking to him and so killed him as well because he felt that his superior was threatening him and it was only due to the Emperor's interference on V.V.'s behalf that he had not been fired or executed for killing his superior. In any case, it was that incident that had cemented his colleagues' fear of him and even his superiors were rather hesitant to reprimand him and when they did, he was usually let off with the equivalent of a slap on the wrist and a rather hesitant "Don't do it again" speech.

Anyway, his thoughts suddenly travelled towards his latest mission, which differed from all the rest. In the past, he was simply dispatched to locate his targets and then kill them. However, this time, his mission involved him living with his assigned target while posing as the target's younger brother. The target was none other than Lelouch Lamperouge a.k.a. Zero. Rolo knew who Zero was. He had been the terrorist who had risen up in "Area Eleven" and had gone on to become a major headache to the Holy Britannian Empire and who had organised a rebellion that had come very close to succeeding. However, unfortunately for the "Elevens", Zero had abandoned them for some reason and it led to the rebellion's collapse and Zero had been captured by Suzaku Kururugi, who had since become the Knight of Seven. However, the Emperor had used his Geass on Lelouch, suppressing his real memories while creating false ones in their place. Yes, Rolo knew that the Emperor had a Geass Power of his own. He knew that V.V. and the Emperor had some sort of relationship, though he did not know what it was. He had seen the Emperor at the Geass Order from time to time and had come to assume that that the Emperor had been another "experiment" of the Order.

Anyway, at first, when he was told of his mission, he had refused as he would have preferred to have just killed Lelouch and get it over with. However, his superiors and V.V. explained that this was necessary. According to his superiors, Lelouch had had an accomplice who was only known as C.C. and the Emperor was interested in her capture and he was planning on using Lelouch as bait to lure C.C. out. Once C.C. came to rescue him, then they would dispose of him and Rolo found himself… albeit rather reluctantly going along with it, though V.V. had contacted him with additional orders, telling him that should Lelouch's real memories return, he was to kill him before he had a chance to adjust and Rolo agreed to that, though he did not know why V.V. wanted Lelouch dead, but like with all his targets, it was not his job to ask questions and did not think twice about it.

"Unfortunately, I'm starting to wonder if I can bring myself to go through with it," he thought to himself as a slightly troubled look briefly materialised on his face before returning to its previous state.

Since he started living with Lelouch, he found himself starting to waver slightly. Lelouch was so kind and caring to him, as was the rest of the Student Council and he found himself experiencing emotions he had never experienced before. It was true that Lelouch was only the way he was because of the Emperor's Geass, but even so, Rolo just could not help but feel happy. He knew what happiness was, but spending time with Lelouch and the Student Council, he was slowly starting to realise what happiness really was. He had known about the emotion beforehand, but never really knew what it meant to truly feel happy… at least until now. He had never felt this way before and he could not help but feel a little scared as well. As far as he was concerned, he was nothing more than a tool and yet, Lelouch did not treat him like one. In fact he treated Rolo as if he were his real brother, which really got to him and he found himself appreciating Lelouch's treatment of him. Of course, he had to constantly remind himself that it was the Emperor's Geass and not Lelouch himself that was the cause of it, but with each passing day, Rolo was finding himself arguing with himself over the issue more and more. He found himself wishing that the Lelouch he was spending time with was the real Lelouch and not just a false personality. He wanted the fake Lelouch to be the real Lelouch.

Of course, he was still very dedicated to his mission despite his recent misgivings. In charge of the operation was Villetta Nu, a former member of the Purist Faction within "Area Eleven" and a commoner who had been awarded with the title of Baroness as a reward for uncovering Zero's identity and who had also been informed of Geass and who was also posing as a PE teacher at the school. Rolo knew that Lelouch had a Geass of his own, which had been suppressed by the Emperor's Geass along with his real memories. Villetta herself had been a victim of it and it was why she had stood behind her old colleague, Jeremiah Gottwald when it appeared that he had helped Zero make off with Suzaku Kururugi after the Purist Faction attempted to use him as a scapegoat for Prince Clovis's murder. Afterwards, Jeremiah claimed that he did not remember what he had done and since Villetta had experienced something similar back that "Poison Gas" incident at the Shinjuku Ghetto, she had supported him. In any case, the Emperor had rewarded her under the condition that she head the operation and she agreed, though from what Rolo could tell, all she really cared about was her title and getting revenge on Lelouch for the ruination of the Purist Faction in "Area Eleven".

However, Lelouch was not the only person that the Emperor had used his Geass on. He had also used his Geass on Lelouch's friends from the Student Council for some reason, though he did not know why and neither did he particularly care. Since the Black Rebellion, Ashford Academy's student body had changed with many of the students from the previous year attending schools in the Homeland. Only the members of the Student Council had been allowed to return. All the other students that were attending the school had not been there the previous year. However, the OSI did run into a bit of bother when two boys had accidentally discovered their secret base underneath the school during the second day of their operation. It was clear that they had gotten lost and had accidentally discovered the secret entrance behind a bookcase and took the elevator, curious as to where it would take them. However, Rolo had been there at the time and noticing the two boys and fearing that they would blow their cover, he had killed them, much to Villetta's protests and because of that, they had to sneak the bodies out from the school grounds and dump them in a ghetto while hoping that their deaths would be blamed on angry "Elevens", which they were. The official story was that they had been stupid enough to walk into the ghettos and were attacked by angry "Elevens" and given the people's attitudes towards the "Eleven" population, no one was any the wiser. He also had the same fate in mind for Shirley, Milly and Rivalz should any of them somehow manage to regain their real memories since they also had their real memories suppressed by the Emperor and if their memories returned, it would jeopardise the entire mission. In fact, once Lelouch was out of the way, he would kill them anyway just to ensure that the fact that the OSI's presence at Ashford Academy would never come to the public's attention since he knew that if any of them somehow managed to regain their memories afterwards and realised that Lelouch was dead and he had gone missing and knowing that he was not Lelouch's real brother, it could raise a few eyebrows and bring the OSI unwanted public attention. At least, that was his original plan… but in the three months he had spent with them, he was starting to question his own commitment as they, like Lelouch had treated him like an ordinary person rather than a tool.

"Though I do wonder about Princess Euphemia and how her body managed to disappear," he wondered; not that he cared or anything, it was just that the circumstances behind it and the mysteriousness of the disappearance had piqued his curiosity; plus he needed something to divert his thoughts away from Lelouch and the Student Council and how they were starting to change him.

It had been Princess Euphemia's Specially Administrated Zone of Japan and the massacre that she had carried out that had led to the Black Rebellion, though Rolo knew that Lelouch had probably used his Geass to make her carry it out. However, he did not really care about that, nor did he care for the disappearance of her body afterwards, but he was amazed at just how someone had managed to steal a dead body from an airborne ship and escape completely unnoticed. Rumours had been flying about since the end of the Black Rebellion that Princess Euphemia's body had somehow vanished from the Avalon, Prince Schneizel's personal flagship while it was still in the air. The rumours had started in the Homeland with someone obviously overhearing someone who had been on board the Avalon at the time it had happened talking about it. From there, the person that had overheard it had obviously told someone else and then the rumours spread with people coming up with their own theories on how it had happened. However, being a member of the OSI, Rolo had been told about the incident and all OSI agents had a standing order that should Princess Euphemia be discovered alive, then they were to kill her.

Rolo did not really care all that much, though he had to admit that not even the OSI could have pulled something like that off. The fact that the surveillance camera in Princess Euphemia's room had experienced a fault that had eventually managed to right itself told Rolo that a possible jamming device may have been used and when the "fault" had "cleared", the doctor and nurse that had both seen to Princess Euphemia before she died had been found on the floor unconscious and it was clear that they obviously had walked in on the body snatcher and he or she had incapacitated them. However, neither the doctor nor the nurse had any physical markings on their bodies that suggested that they had been attacked and even more peculiar; when they both had awaken hours later, both of them felt totally fine, but neither had any memory of what they had seen. It really stumped Rolo how anyone could have pulled it off. The body snatcher would have had to have somehow managed to have snuck on board an airborne ship, stolen the body, incapacitate the unlucky witnesses while somehow wiping their memories and escape, all the while remaining completely unnoticed. Even if the body snatcher had stowed away on board while the Avalon had been on the ground prior to that point, there was just no way Rolo could see how they would have managed to have escaped unnoticed. Being the flagship of Britannia's Prime Minister, the Avalon had one of the most tightest security systems known today and nothing could have approached it without being noticed and equally, no one could have escaped without being noticed either. Even Lelouch, for whom Rolo heard was a great strategist could not have pulled it off and he knew that Prince Schneizel himself, who was just as good a strategist as Lelouch, if not better could not have pulled it off either and he knew every nook and cranny of the Avalon like the back of his hand.

"Could Geass somehow be involved?" he wondered as he considered the possibility of Geass somehow being involved, but dismissed it.

He had considered that perhaps someone was a Geass similar to his own may have done the deed, but unfortunately he knew that this could not be the case. Geass could possibly explain the incapacitation and memory-loss of the doctor and nurse, but not how the body snatcher managed to pull it off unnoticed. Aside from his own heart problems limiting the use of his Geass, Rolo knew that it had other drawbacks that were not related to the poor health of his heart. Even if the body snatcher had a similar power to his own, they would have still been caught. After all, even if everyone on board the Avalon had been frozen, the surveillance cameras would have still picked up their movements. Unfortunately for him, electronic devices were immune to his Geass and had it been him, he knew that the cameras would have recorded his movements and the tapes could be played back exposing him and only the camera in Princess Euphemia's room had experienced interference and according to the cameras outside the room, no one aside from the doctor and nurse had entered or exited the room while the camera inside the room was faulty and the doctor and nurse had entered to room not long before the faulty camera had started working again. No one could have used a power similar to his own to have sneaked aboard or escaped either as the computers would have picked up and recorded their movements. It was as if Princess Euphemia's dead body had vanished into thin air.

However, Rolo shook his head as he sat up and reached over for a bottle of pills that sat on top of his bedside table.

"God, I hate these damn pills," he said to himself as he opened the top and then poured a few onto his hand that was still holding the top and then brought it up to his mouth and then swallowed the pills, "But unfortunately I need them to stay alive."

He really hated those pills, but like he said, he needed them to stay alive. The pills themselves looked like normal medical pills. They were white and ovular in shape, but unlike regular pills, they were not for any medical condition. These pills were created by the Geass Order and their main function was to combat Geass Runaway. It was a known fact to the Geass Order that anyone who constantly used their Geass would eventually be unable to deactivate it and given how dangerous some of those powers could be, they had developed special pills that helped suppress the Geass's power. The pills did not prevent a person from using their Geass, but it did stop the power from growing stronger and since Rolo had to constantly use his Geass and since each time caused his heart to stop, he knew that if he ever experienced Geass Runaway, then it would mean the end of him and so, he had to constantly take these Geass Suppressant Pills to keep his Geass from ever reaching that stage.

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Duel Academy Island, Forest Clearing, Amanda's makeshift tent<strong>

Abigail Richardson groaned as she opened her eyes, not really sure where she was as her eyes struggled to come into focus, but without her glasses, her eyes were unable to focus completely. She found herself looking up at a light green cloth that was acting as a ceiling. Even though she could not see properly, she could just make out what appeared to be a grey metal pipe running along the top of the "ceiling" with the "ceiling" slanting downwards in opposite directions till it reached the ground at either side. It did not take Abigail long to deduce that she was in a tent and then the memories of what had happened the previous night came flooding back into her mind. She had been on her way back to the Ra Yellow Dorm from the Slifer Red Dorm after spending time with her friends and then she had noticed something out of the corner of her eye and after sending her brother and friend on ahead, saying that she would catch up when she was done, she had found a girl who was most definitely not a student and had chased her into a forest clearing where she had challenged her to a duel; a duel that she had unfortunately lost. All she remembered was being hit by the girl, Amanda's Levia Dragon – Daedalus in a direct attack before hitting her head before she blacked out. It did not take a genius to realise that she had been rendered unconscious when she had hit her head; speaking of which, she suddenly realised that the back of her head, most noticeably round the area where she had hit her head was numb and she guessed that she was lying with an icepack underneath her head.

Closing her eyes and then opening them again, she attempted to move her arms, but to her surprise and shock, she found that she could not. She found that her arms had been tied behind her back at the wrists and when she tried to move her legs, she found that they had also been tied together at her ankles. Panic suddenly set in as she bolted upright into a sitting position and started to frantically look around, hoping that someone would come to her rescue. However, while looking around, she noticed someone not all that far from her with their back to her while sitting down. However, upon noticing the long sky-blue hair, she realised that it was her captor, Amanda Ribbets as she had introduced herself as.

"Oh, I see you're awake," Amanda said and she turned round to face the Ra Yellow girl with a blue handheld mirror in her left hand and a black hairbrush in her right.

She had been thoroughly brushing her hair, trying to get it's look just right, but upon noticing that her captive was awake she placed the brush and mirror down on the ground and then reached over to a mattress that was lying next to the "wall" opposite the mattress that Abigail was sitting was next to and picked up Abigail's glass, which she had placed next to her while she slept during the night and then crawled over to Abigail before opening the legs and then placed them on the redhead's face.

"There, you can see much better now," the bluenette informed her as Abigail started to calm down now that she could see properly.

Looking around; now with the added help with her glasses, she was able to take in her surroundings more clearly. She found that the tent was fairly spacious, though neither she nor Amanda could stand up at their fell height. The most they could do was kneel. The tent's entrance was in front of her with the left flap folded back revealing the outside. She realised that she was sitting on a mattress and looking down, she saw that she had been draped in a blue bedcover and the mattress was also coloured blue and looking back at where her head had been lying, she noticed that the pillow she had been lying on was also blue and she also noticed a bag of ice on top of the pillow lying where the part of her head that had made contact with the tree hand been, confirming her suspicions that she had been lying on an icepack. At the opposite side of the tent was another mattress with a bedcover and a pillow, though it had been neatly tidied. Abigail guessed that the mattress must be Amanda's.

"Gee, she's really obsessed with the colour, blue," the bespectacled girl noted to herself upon noticing that the colour scheme of the mattress and bedclothes were also blue.

"Aha-ahem," Amanda said while clearing her throat while giving Abigail a scornful look, which made the captive girl nervous as she could not help but tremble just from looking at her as she remembered the bluenette's deceptively and sinisterly sweet attitude after she had apparently ruined her hair during their duel, "She's right here, you know and she can hear you."

"Sorry," Abigail apologised quickly, not really wanting to incur this girl's wrath while she was in her current state.

"Think nothing of it," Amanda said dismissively in a genuinely cheerful tone as she picked up her mirror and hairbrush and then went back to brushing her hair as she tried to get the right style for it.

"Huh?" Abigail said in genuine confusion, caught off guard by the bluenette's sudden cheerfulness.

However, upon looking at Amanda again, she realised that Amanda had gotten out of her scuba-diving suit and was now wearing a pair of white and blue sneakers, white socks with two blue stripes circling the tops, a pair of blue shorts that went down to just below her knees and a blue t-shirt with an image of Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus, the upgraded form of Levia Dragon – Daedalus displayed on the back and the words "OCEAN LORD" displayed on the front in white lettering and block capitals over the chest area.

"So, I suppose you're wondering why I'm here, aren't you?" Amanda said, causing Abigail to nod and Amanda just chuckled, "Yes, I did say that I'd explain myself regardless of the duel's outcome and so, I'll tell you. You see, for the past two years, I've been trying to get into Duel Academy, but I always seem to arrive too late for the Entrance Exams. I arrive long after they've finished. This year was my third attempt and well, I've had it with playing fair. I'm going to get enrolled this year one way or another."

"And just what has this got to do with me?" Abigail asked curiously, though she already had a fair idea of what the answer was and was simply playing along just to humour the bluenette.

"Well, I'll admit that at first, I wasn't planning on duelling anyone," Amanda admitted once again as Abigail remembered her saying something similar the previous night before their duel had started, "However, when you discovered me and I realised that you were alone, I decided to improvise and use you as a bargaining chip to get me enrolled. Now that I've defeated you, you're now my prisoner until the Chancellor decides to enrol me here. The longer he refuses, the more time you and I will be spending together."

"A bargaining chip!" Abigail exclaimed in pure outrage, "That's all, just a bargaining chip!"

Amanda just chuckled as she turned her back to the bespectacled girl and resumed brushing her hair, though she looked back at her, letting her know that she still had her attention.

"Why, what did you think I was going to do to you?" she chuckled teasingly, "And just why would the revelation that I have no intentions of using you as anything other than a bargaining chip upset you so much?"

Abigail opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly stopped herself as she realised that she just did not have a valid answer. In truth, part of her was relieved that Amanda was not planning on doing anything physical to her, but on the other hand, another part of her could not help but feel somewhat insulted and she did not know why. Well, she figured that perhaps she did, but she did not want to admit or even think about it.

"Do you realise just how incredibly lame that plan sounds?" she said as she decided to change the subject, "You do realise that once you go to the Chancellor and tell him about how you kidnapped me, he's more likely to call the police rather than enrol you. Besides, it's too late anyway. We're more than a month through the semester… I mean the first exams of the year are over. They finished two days ago."

"I don't care," the bluenette said with a dismissive wave as she continued to brush her hair, "I'll get enrolled one way or another."

Abigail could not help but flinch at the sudden harshness that seemed to come out of the blue in her tone.

"You don't care about being arrested by the police?" Abigail questioned curiously.

"I'm not worried about the possibility of police involvement," Amanda said as she scoffed at the idea of the police coming to arrest her, "It's the fact that the semester's already a month old that I don't care about."

"What makes you think that you can get away with this?" Abigail questioned sternly, "And if you must know, the reason you're not enrolled is because you were late to the Entrance Exams. That's your fault."

"I was fixing my hair," the bluenette replied as she explained why she was late, "Do you know how long it takes to get my hair just right? I can't go anywhere unless my hair's right. It took me four hours just to get a single strand down and stay down. It's not fair."

"Wow, you make it sound like they should've waited for you instead of ending the Exam at the appointed time," Abigail said, unable to believe how self-centred and selfish the bluenette was sounding, which was a stark contrast to the flirtatious girl she had duelled the previous night, "If that's the case, then I'm afraid that the world doesn't work like that. It doesn't revolve around you. Duel Academy can't afford to wait for every late-comer otherwise hardly anything would get done. It's your own fault for prioritising your hair ahead of the Entrance Exams."

"Humph, I suppose you're right," Amanda said in agreement, though the bespectacled redhead could tell that she was still not happy, "Besides complaining and arguing over it's not going to solve my problem, is it?"

Abigail shook her head.

"However, you'll still have to deal with the police," she warned, "If you think the Chancellor's going to give into your demands just because you kidnapped me, you've got another thing coming. I'm just one person and there's a few hundred students attending the Academy and as they say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. So I doubt the absence of one student's going to make a difference."

"Then I'm afraid that you and I will be spending an awful lot of time together," Amanda said as her cheerfulness returned suddenly as if by magic, "You may indeed be right, but I doubt the same can be said for your friends."

Abigail just scoffed at that.

"I'm really not worried," she said in a rather boastful tone, "As soon as it's discovered that I've been kidnapped, Duel Academy will call the police and then you'll be sorry."

Amanda just chuckled as she shook her head.

"As I've already said, I'm not all that worried about the police," she said as she continued to shake her head, "If the worst comes to the worst, I can always get my dad involved. He's quite wealthy and has an awful lot of influence."

Abigail raised an eyebrow at hearing this, but then noticed that Amanda's expression had become rather bitter.

"Though I'd rather not have to rely on his help," the bluenette went on as her tone became equally as bitter as her expression, "God, I hate that man, but if I must grovel to him to get my way, then so be it."

"I gather you don't get on well with your father," Abigail noted and Amanda nodded.

"You can bet your bottom dollar that we don't get along," Amanda said as anger started to creep into her tone, "Do you honestly think that I'd be doing this if we did get along? No, given his influence, I would've been enrolled on my first try despite being late and I would've been in my final year now if that were the case and despite the fact that I despise him and that disgusting slut of a half-sister that he pampers oh so much, I will approach him and ask for help if I absolutely have no other choice. God, I hate them both so much… and Marcella's not even his daughter."

Amanda clenched her eyes shut as she thought about her father and half-sister. She really did not like either of them and hated both of them with a passion. She was the daughter of a rich and wealthy businessman from the small nation of Misgarth and her half-sister, Marcella Matthews was her mother's daughter from her previous marriage, which had ended when her husband, Jonathan Matthews had been caught in the crossfire of a gang war and she had married Roderick Varos and had had a daughter with him, but Roderick had been quite taken with Marcella and had doted on her quite a lot all the while ignoring his biological daughter. Unfortunately for Amanda, Marcella did not seem to get along with her at all as their mother, Rachael always doted on her and Marcella was finding herself feeling rather jealous and it only got worse after Rachael had been trampled to death at the local zoo after an elephant had gone mad and somehow managed to escape. It was clear to Amanda that Marcella had blamed her for their mother's death as Rachael had taken her to the zoo as a treat that day and her father became even more neglectful of her than he had been before, leading the bluenette to believe that he also blamed her for his wife's death and things got worse from there as Amanda had decided to run away and had changed her surname to her mother's maiden name, Ribbets, refusing to take the surname of her mother's previous husband as Marcella had that name already.

However, like Abigail had said, her failures of getting to the Entrance Exams on time in the past was her fault for prioritising the looks of her hair over the Exams themselves and yet, she found that she just could not accept it. Like Abigail had suggested, she had wanted the people in charge of the Entrance Exams to hold back on finishing them up until she had got there, despite knowing that that they would not do so and could not even if they wanted to. It angered her every time she had arrived at the Kaiba Dome to find that the Entrance Exams had long since finished. She knew that it was her own fault, but she just refused to go outside unless her hair was styled a certain way and she had spent hours trying to get it the way she wanted it. Sometimes it would take hours to get even one area of her hair the way she wanted it, but trying to get another area the way she wanted it would upset the style of the area she had been working on previously, which caused her to backtrack and it held her up. Of course, she knew that she could have just ignored her hairstyle and gone to the Kaiba Dome, but unfortunately her pride over the perfection of her hair refused to allow her to do so and she would spend hours trying to sort it if she found that even a single strand was out of place. She knew that it was foolish of her, but she did not care, she was a perfectionist when it came to her hair and she remembered complaining to the staff at the Kaiba Dome on how they should have waited on her despite knowing that it would do no good, but she just wanted someone to take her anger out on. However, this time she was not going to sit and wait till the following year to be enrolled as she knew that she would probably end up being late and missing out again. This time she had decided to take matters into her own hands and force Chancellor Sheppard to enrol her, though like she had told Abigail, she would call up on her father if she had to, but that was only as an absolute last resort. The last thing she wanted was to sacrifice her dignity and go crawling to him and grovel for his help since she knew that, even though he would help her, he would take the opportunity to rub the fact that she needed him in her face and Marcella would only make it worse when she eventually found out.

In any case, back in the present, Amanda noticed that Abigail was in the process of opening her mouth, probably wanting to ask her about the issue, but she really did not want to talk about it and shot the bespectacled redhead a glare and Abigail immediately closed her mouth, getting the message.

"Sorry," she apologised, realising the bluenette's distress over the issue concerning her father, "I guess it's none of my business, so I won't pry any longer."

"Don't worry about it," Amanda said as her tone suddenly became rather cheerful again, "It's my fault for bringing it up, but if you're curious about Marcella and you've heard of a Marcella Matthews in the Pro-Leagues, then yes, my half-sister and Marcella the Pro-League Duellist are one and the same."

Abigail's eyes widened in shock at this revelation as she had indeed heard of a Marcella Matthews in the Pro Circuit. In fact, she and Terrance were among her many fans. Marcella's popularity was on par with the popularity of Aster Phoenix and her personality was so similar to Aster's, at least until two years ago when he had gone to Duel Academy and underwent a change for the better and many people saw her as a female Aster. However, Abigail knew better than to push Amanda for answers as it was clear to her that she could not stand just thinking about her half-sister and so she decided to drop it.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile in the main building in one of the classrooms, Dr Crowler was currently showing a presentation on the monitor that was on the wall behind the teacher's desk and above him at a height that was considered okay for all the class to see. The presentation itself was on various Effect Monsters and each monster had a different effect and the purpose of the presentation was to highlight the different kinds of effects that monsters could have in the game of Duel Monsters. Crowler himself stood off to the left of the desk with what looked like a small grey rectangular CD Player with a wire attached to the back of it and going up to a connector underneath the monitor and another wire led from the back of it and to a small grey cuboid-shaper remote with a small red button at the top in Crowler's right hand. He was currently lecturing the class that Euphemia just so happened to be in, though Euphemia just sat back with her arms folded, listening to the effeminate teacher talk as she nodded in and out of sleep.<p>

"…And now then, for our next slide…," Crowler was currently saying as he completely ignored Euphemia's battle to stay awake and he pushed the button on top of the remote he hand in his hand with his thumb, "We have Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, now can anyone tell me what his special ability is?"

He started to look around, looking for anyone who was willing to tell, but to his surprise, instead of raised hands, all he got were shocked stares; shocked stares that were focused on the image on the monitor and noticing where the students were all gazing, Crowler turned round and looked up to see what it was that had them all shocked and then the colour suddenly drained from his face and his eyes widened in shock as he realised just why everyone was so shocked.

Instead of an image of an Obnoxious Celtic Guardian Duel Monsters card, there was a photograph of Crowler himself with his hands on his hips and was a big, wide arrogant and somewhat cheesy smile adorning his face. However, that was not what had shocked the students and had caused the colour to drain from the man's face. What was shocking about this photograph was that Crowler looked dripping wet, as if he had just stepped out of a shower or bathtub and there was not a single article of clothing on his person. In other words, he was in his birthday suit.

"Wh-wh-wh-what, h-h-how did th-that g-g-g-get in th-th-there?" Crowler stuttered aloud in complete disbelief; shocked that a personal and private photo had somehow managed to have gotten mixed up in the batch of presentation slides he had been planning on showing his class.

"Wow, I don't… so he really is a guy after all," he heard a student say, which brought him out of his shocked state as he quickly pushed the button on top of the remote he was holding and the image on the monitor quickly zoomed to the right and off the screen and the next image was the card of the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian.

"Either that or he's really a freak," he heard another student reply, causing him to cringe as he really hated it whenever people questioned or insulted his gender.

* * *

><p>However, up where Euphemia was, the pinkette had just forced herself awake for the umpteenth time since the class started and fortunately, she had not seen Crowler's rather embarrassing photo, but she did notice the still-shocked looks on the faces of her classmates as they started to recover from what they had just seen.<p>

"Aha-ahem, l-l-let's just move on, shall we?" she heard Crowler say in a rather embarrassed and nervous tone, "And we'll never speak of this again, got it?"

The last part sounded serious and a bit threatening as Crowler had managed to regain his composure and his last statement was clearly a command and not a request and the students, minus Euphemia all nodded in unison, knowing that it was better not to antagonise the effeminate blonde as he had long since proven just how little he tolerated misbehaviour as three Ra Yellows found out three weeks ago when they tried to make him a laughing stock, but not only did their attempted prank backfire, Crowler had turned the tables and humiliated them… nothing mean-spirited or too serious, but enough so that they would get the message and afterwards, no one had dared to cross Crowler, knowing that they would probably be in for the same treatment and he had made it perfectly clear that he would take disciplinary action regardless of what dorm the offending students belonged to. Fortunately the three students were still in the attending the Academy and had not been expelled, which surprised many students as from what they had heard of Dr Crowler in the past, the three students were expecting to be sent home as Crowler had once had a reputation for getting students; mainly Slifer Reds and a few from Ra Yellow and even Obelisk Blue who had either antagonised him or he had developed a hatred of for one reason or another expelled for even the smallest of infractions, but apparently either they had heard wrong or he had gone through a major personality change recently, though since she knew Jaden, Euphemia knew that the latter was true.

"So what just happened?" she asked her friend, Yumi, who was sitting next to her, "What's got everyone so shell-chocked?"

"Everybody saw a rather embarrassing photo of Dr Crowler in his birthday suit," Yumi whispered back, "Somehow it had gotten mixed up in among the slide. Gosh, I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks, but at least we all now know that he's really a guy."

Euphemia frowned at Yumi's comment, not liking the way she regarded Dr Crowler. Sure, the blonde-haired teacher looked a bit strange and one could easily misidentify him as a woman, but that was no reason to criticise him. Looking down at Crowler, the pinkette saw that he was still a bit shaken and rattled at realising that the photo had mistakenly gotten mixed up with the slides and noticing the strange and uncomfortable looks he was getting as some of the students still whispered among themselves and unable to take it anymore, she stood up, grabbing everyone's attention and then glared around the room.

"Hey knock it off!" she stated in a tone of uncharacteristic fury, "Leave Dr Crowler alone!"

"Euphie-chan?" Yumi said in shocked surprise as she clearly did not expect her friend to literality stand up and rally to their teacher's defence.

Everyone else in the classroom all turned and stared at the pinkette in surprise as they also had not expected her to stand up for Dr Crowler and Crowler himself was equally as shocked, though was clearly touched that someone was willing to look by his appearance despite that person originally being put off by his appearance when they first met.

"He didn't ask to look like that!" Euphemia went on, "In fact, all of us here in the room are different in some way or another. I mean, just look at the blazer hierarchical system that seems to plaque this school. Dr Crowler's probably a really decent inside, but because of his effeminate appearance, you all don't see that. All you see is someone you believe is an ugly gender-confused person that repulses you…"

She took a brief pause and looked down at Crowler and gave him an apologetic look for her comment and he just gave a rather understanding nod in response, though it had partly to do with the fact that he still had not recovered completely from the shock of Euphemia's outburst.

"And like Dr Crowler's appearance, hardly anyone in this school socialises with anyone who wears a blazer that's a different colour because many of you ranked higher than others let it go to your head and rub their noses in it," she went on, still showing no signs of stopping, "And the few that don't "get with the program" and mingle with those outside your designated dorms, you treat them like outcasts and all because they associate themselves with those who you believe are inferior. Well I have news for you. There's more to a person that just their appearance or rank. A student's traits are not determined by the colour of their blazer. Jaden Yūki pretty much proved that and to those of you who say he cheated, I dare you to prove it. Anyway, if Dr Crowler was mean before, then I bet it was because of people like you jumping to conclusions based on his appearance that made him that way. However, that was then, this is now, so just drop it!"

Stunned silence immediately followed as Euphemia finished talking before letting out a huff. Everyone just stared at her, unsure what to say or how to counter. The silence was so great that one could probably hear a pin drop in the opposite end of the room and from the look on Euphemia's face, everyone else knew that she was challenging them to come up with a counter-speech and not surprisingly, no one could come up with one… well no one that is except a certain teal-haired girl who really did not care one way or the other.

"Who the hell cares?" Stella scoffed uncaringly as she glared down at the pinkette and Euphemia stared right back up at her, returning her glare unflinchingly, "You obviously live in a fantasy world because even if what you say is true, nobody really cares. Crushing people and making them feel worthless is what everyone does. It's the only way to get ahead in life."

"Whatever," Euphemia said with a shrug and she turned away from the cruel girl and sat back down.

* * *

><p>"Yes, well…" Crowler said from down at the bottom of the classroom once he finally recovered from his shock, interrupting Stella before she could reply to Euphemia's comment, "Miss Felixton, I do appreciate you standing up for me, I really do, but time marches on and we're already way behind."<p>

"Yes I understand, sir," Euphemia's voice came from where she was sitting, "My apologies."

"Quite," Crowler said with a nod and in a seemingly dismissive tone, "However, since you disrupted the class with your outburst, can you explain to the class what the effect of Obnoxious Celtic Guardian is?"

He saw Euphemia rise from her seat once again and she gave him a rather understanding nod.

"Certainly, the effect of Obnoxious Celtic Guardian is that it can't be destroyed in battle by any monster with nineteen hundred attack points or higher," she said simply.

"Yes, very good," Crowler complimented in satisfaction, though he just gave Euphemia a nod, which she took as a command to sit back down.

He honestly had not expected Euphemia to stand up for him and in truth, he was rather touched. He felt his respect for the pinkette increase and her standing up for him had become another reason why he held her in such high regard. Euphemia was clearly a kind and caring girl who wanted everyone to be happy, though she would not hesitate to fight for what she believed in. It felt strange that Euphemia was standing up for him as he remembered when they first met during the Entrance Exams, Euphemia had been put off by his appearance, but once she realised that she had offended him, she had apologised and later when she believed that she may have hurt him, she had shown concern for his wellbeing; proof that she was a gentle and considersble girl and witnessing her second duel with Stella and noticing her determination, he saw a girl who was more than will to fight for her beliefs if the need arose. He saw Euphemia as a beautiful and kind girl who wanted to please everyone and wanted everyone to be happy and she was willing to fight to make it a reality. In the duel with Stella, Crowler noticed that Euphemia had viewed her as little more than an annoyance despite the fact that Stella had been dominating the duel. It astounded him how Euphemia just managed to brush off the cruel girl's cruelty and revert back to her normal cheerful persona afterwards. Anyone else would have undoubtedly been broken. He could not help but admire her for that.

He also could not help but note the parallels between judging someone by their appearance and how the colour-coded hierarchy of the school worked. Crowler knew that just because someone appeared ugly or threatening did not necessarily mean that they were just as just because a Duel Academy student wore a red blazer did not mean that they were unskilled and weak. Even if they were not really good at Duel Monsters, there were undoubtedly other things they excelled at where as an Obelisk Blue student might not excel as well as them at those same things and what really got him thinking was the fact that he used to be just like that. When he was an elitist, he had looked down on the Slifers and had seen them as a stain on the academy's reputation and so had done his best to expel any Slifer Red students at any given opportunity; even if the infraction was relatively minor and would not normally merit expulsion, in which case he would hype it up; making it look and sound more serious than it actually was and in some cases, he would even orchestrate some of those incidents himself to ensure he got the results he wanted; especially when it came to Jaden, who had beaten not only him, but a few Obelisk Blue students and Crowler remembered how he had come to see Jaden as a threat to the school's status quo, which was one of the reasons he sought to expel him at first; not only did he defeat him in the Entrance Exams while he was using his own personal deck, thereby humiliating him; he had also defeated some of the Obelisk Blues on top of that and Crowler feared that Jaden was making the Obelisk Blue Dorm look weak and the Slifer Red Dorm look strong and there was just no way in Hell that he was going to stand for it. However, that was then. After Jaden saved him from Camula, the Vampire who was part of the Shadow Riders, he had slowly started re-evaluate his outlook on the Dorm situation and it took until Bonaparte threatened to tear down the Slifer Red Dorm the following year for pretty much the same reasons Crowler had tried to get so many of the Slifer students expelled in the past in which he was able to admit that he was wrong. At first he had been a coward and had just gone along with Bonaparte while hoping that someone; notably Jaden would stop him as he had been too scared to stand up to Bonaparte and it took until after Jaden had defeated Aster Phoenix in a rematch in which the stipulation was that if Aster won, the Slifer Red Dorm would be torn down to gather up the courage to finally stand up to him when he just refused to back down.

Anyway, Crowler found Euphemia's parallels important because he knew that people judged him because of his feminine appearance and he had to admit that it made him look unattractive and many people were wary to approach him and it made him rather sensitive about his gender since many people often mistook him for a woman and finding out that he was a man rather creped them out. They never even bothered getting to know him and had jumped to conclusions about him without knowing all the facts. He had to wonder if that was one of the reasons had been so bitter before Jaden had changed him. Thinking on the hierarchy of the academy, he could not help but see the parallels. Like people judging others by their appearances, the students judged each other by the colour of their blazers and did not bother getting to know one another. Those who were in Slifer Red got the worst of it with students from the other two dorms looking down on them just because they believed they were inferior to them and it worked both ways as many of the Slifers had become so bitter that upon noticing that a fellow student was wearing a yellow or blue blazer just assumed that they would look down on them. He remembered that one Slifer had somehow managed to smuggle a shotgun into the academy and had basically snapped at the abuse he had suffered and had went to the Obelisk Blue Boys' Dorm and shot the place up, killing two students and injuring five others. The boy had been arrested and was in a psychiatric hospital. The only reason why the story never received much publicity and had not forced changes was because Crowler himself had managed to pay off the journalists sent to cover the story to convince the public that it was just a one-off incident by one insane student; something that he now totally regretted. Anyway what made those parallels so significant to him was that by following the students' examples and making the lives of the Slifer students miserable, Crowler realised that he had become just like those people who had judged him because of his appearance. Like those people he had taken one look at the Slifer Red students; not knowing who they were and instead of getting to know them, he had just looked at the colour of their blazer and made his own conclusions about them and he had also done this to a lesser degree with the Ra Yellow students because they were not in Obelisk Blue, though he had been a lot more tolerance of the Ra Yellow students than the Slifer Red students. However, not all the students that Crowler had tried to expel were Slifer Reds; a few were from Ra Yellow and even Obelisk Blue, though they had either done something to upset him or had simply stood up for the Slifer Red students. Like Euphemia had said, those who did not "get with the program" were usually regarded as outcasts.

"What a fool I was," he thought to himself, "I had been so caught up in my anger over people distancing themselves from me that I took it out on those students and became what I hated."

Thankfully, even before Jaden had started attending the academy, some people; mainly his colleagues had managed to get to know him and were not creped out by his appearance, though they occasionally teased him about it, but it was really Jaden, who did not seem to care about his appearance, though when they first met, he had assumed that Crowler had been one of Duel Academy's mascots, but aside from that, he was not in the least bit put off by him and actually looked up to him despite how he had tried to get him expelled and knowing that Jaden knew he did not like him, but then again, Jaden had been so happy and carefree that Crowler had had to wonder if he even knew how to hate somebody and Jaden was the only person that he knew that had actually thanked people for insulting him… well maybe that was a bit farfetched, but with Jaden's attitude after someone had just insulted him, it was easy to make that assumption. Anyway, it was thanks to Jaden that he not only changed, but many of the students had actually grown to genuinely respect him as evidenced when during his rematch with Jaden when he burst into tears when it appeared that he would lose and he then proceeded to explain why he had appeared to have reverted back to his original personality and how he did not want the students to leave and had tried to sabotage their grades to ensure that they would be held back and after hearing this, the students actually started to cheer him on and urged him to continue the duel and even though he lost, he knew that he had the students' respect.

* * *

><p>Euphemia had just sat down and let out a small exhale as she was still a bit miffed at how the students had regarded Dr Crowler.<p>

"Euphie-chan, a-a-are you alright?" Yumi asked nervously, knowing that her friend's anger extended to her as well the rest of their friends for they were among those who had prompted her to stand up for Crowler.

"Yeah, I'll be alright in a bit," Euphemia replied in a calmer tone.

"Gomen, Euphie-chan," the Japanese girl apologised in her native language, "I know I'm the one who probably prompted you to give that speech, but you're right."

That much was true. Despite being shocked at her friend's defence of their teacher, Yumi knew that what she had said was right. When people heard of her sister and then learned about how inferior she was to Seika, they automatically ridiculed her for not living up to her sister's standards without getting to know her or bothering to learn why she was the way she was and hearing the pinkette drawing parallels between Dr Crowler's appearance and the dorm hierarchy, she thought back to her own situation and how like those people who had ridiculed her in the past she had become in that instance. Of course, she had meant what she had said. The photograph did genuinely scare her a bit, but she realised that it was wrong to voice her thoughts aloud. Sometimes it was best to keep your opinions to yourself and that lesson hit Yumi hard. It was like her situation in the past only now, she was one of the abusers instead of the victim.

"Don't worry about it," Euphemia said dismissively, "If it's any consolation, when I first met him in the duelling field at the Entrance Exams, I did feel a bit put off by his appearance and was probably thinking unfriendly thoughts… that was until I saw his face and realised that I offended him."

Yumi looked at her friend in surprise, but then calmed down as she decided to continue listening to Crowler's presentation.

"Oh, by the way, looking around the classroom, I just realised that I didn't see Abigail, is she sick?" Euphemia said as she remembered while glaring at all the students in the class that she noticed that Abigail was notably absent and for some reason, she could not help but think back to the previous night when she had gotten the feeling that something had been terribly wrong and noticing Abigail's absence, that feeling came back even stronger than ever.

The previous night, Yumi had managed to convince her that she had just been paranoid over the possibility that Stella would retaliate sooner than she had expected for her latest defeat, though even back then, Euphemia had doubted that the feeling had anything to do with Stella and had forced herself into agreeing with Yumi because she had been too tired to think about it properly.

"How should I know?" Yumi said in response to Euphemia's statement, "I've been with you all day since before class started and we haven't met up with James, Terrance, Abigail or Zukasu before then."

"Hmmm, I wonder…" Euphemia mused to herself as she thought about the feeling she had gotten.

* * *

><p>Around the classroom, many of the students who had heard Euphemia's speech; upon recovering from their shock had proceeded to glare at her. Stella was not the only one glaring at her this time. While Stella did glare at Euphemia for the usual reasons as well as for the fact that the pinkette had blown her off yet again, many of the other students; mostly those who were delusional about the dorm hierarchy who were in Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow joined her. Their reasons for their glares were simple; Euphemia was a Slifer Red and in their minds, she had talked down to them and the majority of those glaring at her believed that she was forgetting her place. To them, she was talking down to them as if they were inferior to her and it did not help that deep down, though they would not admit it, even to themselves, they knew that what she had said was right. Of course, Stella had spoken what they had all wanted to say, but in truth, Euphemia had struck a nerve with many of them and subconsciously, not only were they aware that she was right, but they also knew that Euphemia knew that she was right and when she had challenged those to try and prove that they were right in their accusations that Jaden Yūki was indeed a cheat, they pictured her with a rather smug smirk on her face since it was clear that they could not prove it and by knowing that they could not prove it, Euphemia was rubbing it in their faces. They just could not stand that. They had been upstaged by someone they believed should be inferior to them and knowing that she was right about what she said really infuriated them to no end. They just could not take it and many were so blinded that they completely overlooked the main reason why she given her speech and deluded themselves into believing that she had only given her speech to make the Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow students look bad. They had either neglected Dr Crowler or simply did not care about him. One Obelisk Blue girl even clenched her right hand into a fist and slammed it into her open left hand as she glared down at the pinkette.<p>

* * *

><p>After class had finished with Crowler somehow managing to finish his presentation in time despite the photograph incident and Euphemia's outburst eating into class time, though the fact that the presentation had lasted longer than anticipated, the assignment afterwards, which was a write-up on the presentation had been given as a homework assignment, though it was not technically homework since the students lived on campus, but it was pretty much the same thing and they had until the following week to write it up. The extra work also did not help calm the tempers of those who were still angry with Euphemia and only served to add additional fuel to the fire.<p>

"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" one outraged Obelisk Blue girl said, "Who does she think she is?"

"Come on, she was just standing up for Dr Crowler," a more sensible Obelisk Blue boy said.

"That freak, bah," the girl scoffed, not really caring one way or the other, "I doubt anyone would want to stand up to a revoltingly disgusting she-male like that. I bet she was only using him as an excuse to make us all look bad."

"Here, here!" three other girls shouted from out in front as the girl who had spoken stormed off to join them.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Euphemia and Yumi had just exited the classroom and Yumi flinched after hearing the exchange of words between the boy and girl who had stormed off with her friends. She also noticed the number of glares that Euphemia was getting, though looking at Euphemia, if she had noticed them, then she had chosen to ignore them. Euphemia was walking towards James and Terrance whom she had noticed walking towards their next class.<p>

"Hey, Euphie-chan, I really think that you have made quite a few enemies with that little speech of yours," the Japanese brunette said as she trembled nervously as she looked around and saw the number of glares that were focussed on her friend.

"Really, well in truth, I could care less," Euphemia responded as she looked around and gave the surrounding students a glare of her own.

The other students' glares only seemed to intensify, but Euphemia ignored them as she made her way over to her two friends with Yumi following in tow.

"Hey, J-Man, Terrance!" she called out, causing the two Ra Yellow boys to stop and turn to face her.

"Hey, Euphie, Yumi, what's up?" James asked curiously.

"That was quite the speech you gave in there," Terrance commended with a smile, "You were truly remarkable."

"You do realise that she was also addressing us as well, don't you?" Yumi pointed out.

"Yeah, we're aware of that, but it doesn't matter," James said with a sigh, "What you said was right, ya know. The J-Man hates it when people judge him by his appearance and yet, when that photograph appeared we all became just like those people. We judged Dr Crowler just because of his appearance."

Terrance nodded in agreement.

"Alright, alright, but I'm not here about the speech I gave in the classroom," Euphemia said making waving hand gestures as if ushering something to one side and sounding a bit annoyed, "Let's just let bygones be bygones on that issue, I was hoping that you'd both tell me if you know why Abigail's absent. I noticed that she was not in class."

Both James and Terrance turned to look at one another as they knew that Abigail had not shown up for class and they both remembered the events of the previous night in where Abigail had become convinced that she had noticed something and had sent them both on ahead while she investigated what it was. James had been somewhat reluctant, but Terrance had convinced him to relent, though even after they had returned to the dorm, James just could not get his worry for the bespectacled girl out of his mind despite Terrance's best efforts to assure him that Abigail was capable of looking after herself. However, noticing that his sister had not turned up for class, he now started to wonder if perhaps James's fears may have been more well-founded than he would like to admit and he could not help but notice James giving him an "I told you so" look, which only caused him to glare right back at him as if to say "Rub it in and you're dead".

"Red never returned to the dorm last night either," a new voice that everyone recognised as belonging to Abigail's rather hyperactive roommate, Alicia Riverton and turning to face her, they noticed that she was not her usual cheery self and looked rather distressed and worried.

"What, are you sure?" Euphemia asked curiously as the feeling that she had been getting since the previous night seemed to become rather overpowering and she just could not dismiss it any longer.

"Yeah, of course I'm sure, I waited up till three in the morning before I fell asleep, but she never turned up and when I woke up earlier this morning, her bed hadn't been touched," Alicia said in a somewhat panicked tone, "I'm worried. It's not like her."

"Perhaps she decided to sleep elsewhere to get away from you," Yumi thought somewhat cruelly as she stared at the normally hyperactive blonde as she knew that Abigail could not stand her roommate and had been at her wits end in dealing with her for some time, though her thoughts had also been brought on by the fact that Alicia had nicknamed her, "Little Fuji" to distinguish between her and her sister, whom she had nicknamed, "Big Fuji" and being called little while being compared to her big sister whom she had a massive inferiority complex with really did nothing to get her to sympathise with the blonde at the moment, though to her credit, Yumi knew that Alicia was not intending to hurt her, "But still, she's rather insensitive to other people's feelings."

"Well, when I last saw her, she left the Slifer Dorm with James and her brother," Euphemia said as she shot the two boys a questioning look, knowing that something must have happened to separate them and the two boys turned to face each other, giving each other questioning looks.

"What happened to Red?" Alicia asked pleadingly as she ran up to the two boys with a pleading look in her eyes.

Both James and Terrance looked at one another and if was clear that they were silently asking the other to spill the beans as they had originally decided to keep it a secret from the others until Abigail did show up again so as not to worry them. However, they had been hoping that they would not notice her absence and that she would eventually turn up before they realised she was missing, but apparently, it was not meant to be.

"Just tell us what happened!" Yumi snapped, bringing them both back to reality, "We don't care what secret pacts you made with one another, just tell us what happened to her! She's our friend to, you know."

"Yes, she did leave the Slifer Dorm with us," Terrance admitted as he stared at Alicia both turning his attention to the two Slifer girls, "However, while we were on our way back, while we were both talking to one another, Abi was bringing up the rear and then she stopped, believing that she had seen something."

"She told us to go on ahead; that she would catch up in a while," James continued with a sigh as he remembered his misgivings and now knew that his fears had been well-placed, "I didn't agree with leaving her, but she and Terrance both convinced me to drop it and that she'd be fine and that was that, though I still had my misgivings."

"That's the last time either of us saw Abi, I swear," Terrance said as he shot James a glare as he saw that he was about to potentially give an "I told you so" speech.

"And you let her go after whatever it was she saw on her own?" Euphemia asked as she raised an eyebrow at Terrance and then turned to face James, "And you didn't put more of an effort to try and persuade her to reconsider?"

"Well no… Abi's a big girl and perfectly capable of handling herself," Terrance said, shooting the pinkette a glare as he attempted to justify his decision.

"Never mind, we'll get nowhere arguing like this," Euphemia said while shaking her head.

"Does this mean that we're going to go and look for Red?" Alicia asked hopefully as she gave Euphemia a pleading look.

"My, my, it seems that you guys have quite the predicament," a new voice came, startling everyone else present.

The group all turned in the direction of the voice and saw a short woman with long brown hair white bleach-blonde streaks running downwards in a vertical striped pattern and eyes so dark that their colour was indistinguishable. The woman wore traditional Japanese sandals along with white tabi socks, a yellow kimono with a white sash and a thick lighter shade of yellow outline and a white blazer with a yellow shoulder band.

"Oh hey, Miss Shizuki," Euphemia said nervously as she remembered that this woman was Reina Shizuki, the headmistress of the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorm.

She was nervous because she had been promoted to Ra Yellow as a reward for defeating Stella during the Promotional Exams, but she had turned the promotion down as she wanted to be with Yumi and she feared that Reina was sore about it as she remembered that she did indeed look disappointed when she had told her that she was returning to Slifer Red.

"I couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about," Reina said in a serious tone, but then turned to face Euphemia and gave her a reassuring smile, "And no, Miss Felixton, I'm not angry at you for turning down your promotion. In fact, I think it was pretty noble of you considering how close you and Fujiharu-san have become."

Both Euphemia and Yumi blushed at the comment, feeling a bit flattered and embarrassed.

"Anyway, it is indeed strange that Miss Richardson has apparently gone missing since she never showed up for breakfast this morning," Reina went on, her tone becoming serious once again, "It seems that you're all planning on going out to look for her."

"Well yeah, after classes are over, that is," Euphemia said with a nod of admission, "She's our friend, but we have still have the rest of the day's classes to go through."

Reina rested her elbow on the back of her hand and curved the side of the index finger and thumb of her other hand round her chin as she started to think and for a while looked lost in thought. However, a few seconds later, she folded her arms and gave the group a nod.

"Okay, I can see that you're all worried about her and so, I've decided that you have permission to go off and look for her as I can tell that you'll be unable to concentrate while worrying over her," she said at length, "And don't worry, I'm more than willing to take the heat for allowing you all to go off and look for her. In fact, I think I'll join you."

"What?" everyone else said in unison.

"Miss Richardson is a girl of the Ra Yellow Dorm and as Headmistress of the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorm, she is under my care and it's therefore my responsibility to see that she's okay and doing well," she explained to the astonished group as they were surprised that a member of the Academy Faculty was joining them, "Though I am disappointed in you two boys for your failure to convince her to ignore whatever it was she believed she saw and you Mr Richardson, I'm shocked that you encouraged her, though I will praise Mr Jamison for trying to convince her to go back to the dorm, but you should not have given in so easily."

Both James and Terrance winced under the headmistress's disappointed glare as they could not help but tremble and Terrance knew better than to try and justify his decision to a member of faculty.

"And I realise that what you said about your sister being able to take care of herself meant well, but it's still no excuse for your encouragement," Reina went on as he glare intensified as she focused on Terrance, "However, since you belong to the Boys' Dorm, I'll leave your punishment in the hands of Professor Satyr, the Headmaster of the Ra Yellow Boys' Dorm and believe me, I'll be giving your sister a firm talking to when we find her."

"Yes, ma'am," Terrance and James both said with a nod when they were sure that she was finished.

Reina nodded, feeling content.

"Well, let's go and find her, shall we?" she said and the group all nodded.

"Right," they all said in unison.

"Hey, shouldn't we get Zukasu to come along to?" Yumi asked, causing everyone to stop before they could split up.

"He went on to the next class and that class has started already," Terrance said as he realised that one of their number was indeed missing.

"Never mind that, unfortunately, he'll have to sit this one out," Euphemia said, though she sounded a bit upset that Zukasu would not be joining them this time; something that Yumi picked up on and though part of her was somewhat happy that Zukasu was not going to be with them since it meant more time she could spend with Euphemia, she could not help but feel sad that Euphemia was upset that he was unable to join them.

Of course, despite part of her being thankful that Zukasu was absent, another part of her felt the same as Euphemia as despite her recent admission that she was somewhat jealous of the prep-school graduate for his position in Euphemia's life as Zukasu was indeed a really nice guy despite being an Obelisk Blue. In fact, he was one of the few who did not "get with the program" and look down on those from the other two dorms and he also spoke with her as much as he did with Euphemia. So Yumi saw him as a friend as well, but she knew there was something between him and Euphemia; something that drew them both to one another. Yumi did not know how to describe it; it was as if they had been born to fall in love with each other, though Yumi knew that Euphemia and Zukasu were not lovers, but from what she had seen from their relationship, it seemed that they were well on the way to becoming lovers and Yumi just could not help but feel left out, though her jealousy seemed centred on Zukasu rather than Euphemia, but then again, that was just because of Euphemia's friendly personality and besides, what kept her jealousy from growing was that Zukasu was just too friendly to hate. His own personality seemed to mirror Euphemia's, though he was more serious and maybe even a bit more down to Earth, but other than that, he was a male version of Euphemia, though despite this, Yumi could not help but feel a bit jealous anyway.

"Okay, now let's split up," Alicia suggested, surprisingly everyone as this was clearly out of character for her, "We'll cover more ground that way."

"Right," they all said as they split up and went off to look for Abigail.

* * *

><p>Much later outside in the surrounding forest in one of many clearings, the five friends and one teacher all met up while panting from exhaustion after extensively searching a part of the island that they had designated themselves.<p>

"Nope, can't find her," Yumi said, shaking her head, "All I found was an old well with a bunch of low-level monster cards that had been thrown away."

"Did you look inside the well?" Reina asked, giving the Japanese brunette a very stern stare as if scolding her.

"Yeah, I first called down, but when I got no answer, I climbed down a set of ladders that were inside the well, but I could find no sign of Abigail," Yumi explained with a disappointed sigh as she shook her head, "All I found were discarded cards of low-level monsters both down and around the well."

"Well, the Yellow Dorm's clear, I couldn't find her there," Terrance said, causing everyone to turn and stare at him since it was already obvious that Abigail was not at the any of dorms.

"Well, I went looking around in the forest and then I came across an old abandoned building," Alicia said, causing Terrance, James, Euphemia and Yumi to all groan as they assumed that Alicia was making up a wild story due to her wild hyperactive nature, "It looked pretty creepy, so I didn't go inside."

"This is no time for fairy stories," Yumi said, clearly annoyed with the normally hyperactive blonde.

"But I'm not making this up," Alicia said, sounding rather sincere for once, "There really was a strange looking building in the middle of the forest. It looked rather rundown and abandoned and it creped me out, so I didn't go inside."

"Yeah, sure you are and I know each and every member of the band, Asian Kung-Fu Generation personally," Yumi said sarcastically.

"Enough!" Reina cut in before Alicia could reply, sensing that they were getting off-topic, "Let's just concentrate on finding Miss Richardson and forget about this mysterious building nonsense. It may be true, it may not be; in truth, no one cares."

Both Yumi and Alicia flinched at the Japanese woman's harsh tone as it was clear to them both that Reina was already getting rather annoyed with their arguing.

"Hey, hold on, what's that over there?" James said, catching everyone's attention as they saw him pointing over at what appeared to be a light green tent just barely visible behind a set of bushes.

"Wow, I didn't know they let people camp out on the island," Euphemia said as she and the others all started to run towards the tent.

"They don't," Reina replied, shaking her head, "Camping's not allowed on the island. Duel Academy Policy forbids it; something about littering and its effect on the surrounding forest."

"Well it definitely seems as if someone's ignored that policy," Terrance said, stating the obvious, "Forest fires spread and rage out of control rather quickly, so I'm guessing that campfires also have something to do with Duel Academy's Anti-Camping Policy since they're a potential fire hazard."

"Quite right," Reina said with a nod.

"You don't suppose Abigail decided to camp out, not knowing about that policy, do you?" Euphemia suggested with innocent curiosity.

"Impossible, neither Abi nor I brought camping supplies with us," Terrance replied, shaking his head, "Why would we when there're dorm rooms?"

Yumi nodded as she remembered back to the first day she and Euphemia came to Duel Academy and had gone to the Slifer Dorm and Yumi ended up complaining, but Euphemia just shrugged it off. However, what made her remember that day was the tent since Euphemia had told her that at least they weren't forced to camp outside in tents/

"_Like I said before, you take what you get_," she remembered Euphemia saying, "_It's better than nothing. At least we're not sleeping outside in tents_."

"Yeah, it's just as well," she thought to herself, "It'd be a nightmare if it were raining."

"I swear, if Miss Richardson's gone and violated the "No Camping" Policy, there'll be the Devil to pay," Reina growled dangerously as it was clear that she was unhappy at discovering a tent out in the forest and with Abigail missing; all fingers pointed to her deciding to camp out for the night.

However, when Euphemia, Yumi, Terrance, James, Alicia and Reina all ran out from behind the bushes and ran in front of the tent, they found that the left flap on the entrance was folded back, revealing the interior of the tent and indeed, Abigail was inside and seeing her brother, her friends and Miss Shizuki caused her eyes to widen in a mixture of shock and hope. However, what shocked the group of four Ras and two Slifers was that when they saw her, they saw that her legs had been bound together at her ankles and her arms went behind her back in a manner that indicated that they were tied.

"Abi?" Terrance said in astonishment, unable to believe what he was seeing; his own sister tied up.

It now became clear why Abigail had not returned to the Dorm the previous night. When she had sent her brother and James on their way while she investigated whatever it was that had gotten her attention, whatever had gotten her attention must have kidnapped her and was now holding her hostage for some reason.

"Wow, the J-Man doesn't know whether to class this as messed up or kinda kinky," James said aloud as he examined Abigail's prone form, taking in her womanly figure and rounded curves.

This earned a glare from both Abigail and her brother and Terrance looked ready to hit him.

"Just shut up and untie me," Abigail said to Terrance and James while glaring at them both, "Quick, before she gets back."

"Huh, she…?" Terrance said in confusion.

"Obviously the person that kidnapped her," Euphemia said as she started to make her way towards the tent, "Now I suggest that we do as she says before her would-be kidnapper returns."

Everyone nodded as they started to make their way towards the tent to untie Abigail.

"You do realise, Miss Richardson, that you are in very serious trouble," Reina told the bound girl sternly as she gave her a rather disapproving look, "You should not have gone and investigated whatever it was that had gotten your attention. You should've just ignored it or reported it to a faculty member if it had been bugging you."

"Yeah, I know," Abigail said with a rather deflated sigh as she knew that the Ra Headmistress was right, "Gomenasai, Shizuki-sensei."

She knew that it had been her own fault to begin with. If she had just ignored Amanda when she noticed her, she knew that she would not have been in this mess, but curiosity had gotten the best of her and she knew that it had also been a mistake to send her brother and James on ahead since back then, she did not know what she was dealing with. She knew that had it not been Amanda, but someone else, then she could have been in even greater trouble since it could have been a psychotic murderer or rapist for all she knew and then there would have been the added possibility that she could have died and there would have been no one to blame apart from herself. As happy as she was to see her dorm's headmistress, she was also not happy to see her at the same time since she knew that she would probably be getting a lecture from her later along with who knew what punishment.

However, as the group of friends and teacher advanced towards the tent with Terrance in the lead, Abigail groaned as Amanda jumped out from behind a tree and into their path.

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," she said as she looked over the group of friends and was mildly surprised when she saw Reina since the type of blazer she wore indicated that she was a member of faculty.

"So you're the one who kidnapped Abi," Terrance said as he glared at Amanda, though he was momentarily surprised that Abigail's kidnapper was a girl who looked to be around their age.

"What do you want with her?" Alicia demanded as she glared at her roommate's captor furiously, "Let Red go this instant or I'll…"

"You'll what?" Amanda interrupted her as she shot her a smug look, "I don't think you realise it yet, Blondie, but you're in no position to be making demands."

"What was that?" Alicia challenged, intensifying her glare and causing Abigail to look at her in surprise.

This was not the usual hyperactive blonde that continuously drove her towards insanity. Of course, she knew that Alicia was worried about her since she had deluded herself into believing that they were the best of friends. However, she never imagined that the hyperactive blonde had such a fierce protectiveness of her. She had always assumed that Alicia was demented and delusional and that she would abandon her when the chips were down since she believed that it would serve to give her a slap of reality. She never imagined that Alicia really did care about her. She thought that Alicia was only deluding herself and if there was ever a situation that involved risk in which she would need Alicia's help, she believed that Alicia would have abandoned her.

"Perhaps I had her figured all wrong," she thought to herself as she continued to stare towards her blonde-haired roommate, "Perhaps you're not as dim-witted and scatter-brained as you seem."

"Just let her go," James demanded as he glared at the bluenette, "Whadda ya want with her anyway?"

"You'd better have an explanation for this," Reina added sternly, "You do realise that you're trespassing here, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Amanda confirmed with a nod, "Why do you think I took her prisoner in the first place? Though to be honest with you, I wasn't originally planning on duelling anyone."

"You weren't?" James said as his and everyone else's eyes widened in surprise.

"No, but unfortunately I got careless and she just so happened to spot me," Amanda went on, "My first instinct was to run, but when I noticed that she was alone, I decided that I could use the situation to my advantage and so, I challenged her to a duel and won and the stipulation of the duel was that if she lost, she'd have to help me."

"Help you?" Yumi said in confusion as she looked towards the bound Abigail and then back at Amanda, "How's tying her up going to help you?"

"Basically, she's my ticket to getting enrolled here," Amanda said simply.

"Huh, say what?" Terrance said in complete and absolute disbelief, unable to believe what he just heard, "That's what this is about?"

"Yep, got it in one," Amanda admitted with a boastful smirk on her face, "I've been trying to get in for the past three years."

"And like I said before, it's your own damned fault for prioritising your hair above the Entrance Exams!" Abigail called out to her before turning to face everyone else, "As she says, she's been trying for three years. However, every time the Entrance Exams come round, she spends hours fixing her hair. According to her, she has to get it just right otherwise there's no point in going and when she eventually does get it right, the Entrance Exams are long over and she's angry that they didn't just wait for her."

"Yep, what she says is all true," Amanda admitted with a nod and a boastful look on her face, "And I've had it. If I wait till next year, no doubt I'll be late again. I even spent all night last time fixing my hair and I was still late, but no more; I'll just have to force my way in."

"Let the J-Man guess," James said as he calmly put two and two together, "When Abigail discovered you; you decided that you'd salvage the situation and take her prisoner hoping that by kidnapping her, you'd have a bargaining chip."

"You're pretty clever, yes, that's exactly it," Amanda said with a look of boastful triumph on her face, glad that they figured out her plan, "Of course, I gave her the chance to defend herself in a duel, but unfortunately for her, she lost."

Everyone just stared at her, not looking all that impressed by her planning.

"That plan's just lame," Alicia said simply, "What's to stop us from just calling the police?"

"That's right, I feel more inclined to call the police at the moment," Reina said as if confirming the normally hyperactive blonde's statement, "You are trespassing after all; not to mention that kidnapping is a very serious offence."

"Professor Shizuki's right," Terrance added while continuing to glare at his sister's kidnapper, "If you want my opinion then your plan's poorly thought out. The moment you got in touch with Chancellor Sheppard, he'd just call the police."

"How're ya planning on dealin' with da cops?" James asked as he also glared at Amanda, not too happy that the girl he had come to develop a crush on was at this other girl's mercy.

"Well, the longer it takes for me to get enrolled, the longer your sweet Abigail and I will be spending together," Amanda said with the hint of seduction in her tone as she turned her head towards Abigail and gave her a flirtatious smile, reminding her of the previous night and Abigail could not help but cringe uncomfortably.

"You still haven't answered the question," James said, glaring at Amanda even more intensely than before after seeing how she stared and spoke to Abigail.

Sure, he may find the idea of two girls making out rather hot, but even he had limits and he saw that Abigail had gotten rather uncomfortable with the idea of what Amanda had been implying and he was not one to force anyone into doing anything they did not want to; even if it was for his own pleasure. He was a bit of a pervert, he would admit, but he did know where the line was drawn and he would not dare cross it. Amanda on the other hand, as far as he was concerned, she had crossed that line and he dreaded to think what she had done to Abigail already. It brought out a rage in him unlike any other since it was really disgusting perverts who spied on and forced people into doing stuff they did not want to do that gave people like him who, despite their perverseness, were pretty decent people who managed to keep it under control bad names.

"I'm not concerned about the cops," Amanda said uncaringly with a wave of her hand, "I already have a contingency in place in case that happens."

"Really?" Yumi said sceptically, not looking all that convinced, "And the rumours about magical supernatural powers being behind the origins of Duel Monsters are real."

"Believe what you want," Amanda said dismissively as she shook her head, "In any case, since I've been discovered, I guess the only option for me is to duel."

She then produced her duel disk from the bag she had slung over her shoulder.

"Gee, you really don't have to duel," Euphemia said as she readied her own duel disk, "You can just run."

"Ah, but then I won't get enrolled here," Amanda replied with a very hard edge in her tone, making it clear that she was determined that she wanted to get enrolled and was willing to go to any lengths to ensure that she was enrolled.

"However, if you wanna duel then…" Euphemia started to say as she lifted her deck and was about to insert it into the deck slot as she walked over to Amanda.

"Hold on, Euphie!" Terrance said as he held his arm out in front of her with a stern tone, "Abi's my sister, so let me handle this."

"Huh, Terrance, are you…?" Euphemia said in surprise.

"Sure I'm sure," Terrance said in a stern tone that basically said, "Don't argue with me", "Abi and I are twins and we've been watching each other's backs since we were both tots. This girl's gone and messed with my sister and no one messes with Abi while I'm around, no one!"

He then looked towards Reina, who looked a bit shocked at his declaration, but upon recovering and regaining her composure, she closed her eyes and gave a soft nod in his direction, giving her approval.

"Well… okay, I guess I can't argue with that," Euphemia said as she stood down, knowing that Terrance was simply just looking out for his sister.

She did not know why, but that seeing Terrance come to his sister's defence sparked a sense of déjà vu from within her. It was like she had seen something like this before, though she could not remember where. However, she wondered if perhaps she knew someone who had a sibling that they were very protective of. Looking at Terrance and over at Abigail, who was still tied up in Amanda's tent, for a brief second, Abigail appeared to transform into a younger girl with sandy brownish blonde hair and blue eyes and Terrance appeared to transform into a boy with short dark brownish black hair and amethyst purple eyes and seemed to have a dangerous look about him.

"Huh?" she said, shaking her head and blinking at the same time, "What was…?"

"What is it, Euphie-chan, more suppressed memories?" Yumi asked, remembering her friend's amnesic state and her reactions during Zukasu's duel with Stella.

"Suppressed memories, what's this all about?" James asked curiously.

"Yes, I would like to know that as well," Reina said, looking at Euphemia curiously.

"Pinky has suppressed memories?" Alicia said, sounding more like her usual self, "What're they about?"

Yumi, James and Reina all turned to glare at her for her apparent stupidity.

"If we knew that, they wouldn't be suppressed," Yumi said in an annoyed tone, clearly coming to her wits end with the hyperactive girl.

"Gee, I think I can now understand why she drives Miss Richardson up the wall," Reina thought upon noticing the Japanese girl's frustration.

Yumi then turned to face James and Reina.

"Never mind that now, I'll explain it later," she said as she motioned towards Terrance, who looked ready to duel, "I don't know much about it either, but Euphie-chan seems to have a case of amnesia and can't remember anything prior to arriving in Domino."

"Oh, okay then," Reina said with a nod as she turned to face Terrance, deciding to drop the subject for now, but made a mental note to inform Chancellor Sheppard later.

"Righty," James said, feeling satisfied with Yumi's explanation as he also turned to face Terrance.

Amanda looked towards Euphemia as she initially volunteered to duel her and for some strange reason, she suddenly got a sense of déjà vu just looking at her. However, unfortunately, she just could not remember where she had seen her before. She supposed that perhaps that it was not Euphemia herself that she had seen in the past, but someone that resembled her as a potential reason for the feeling of déjà vu since Euphemia did not appear to recognise her. However, the more Amanda tried to tell herself that, the more her feeling of déjà vu continued to nag at her. She did not know why, but something within her just refused to let it lie. She somehow knew that she had definitely seen Euphemia somewhere before.

"Where've I seen you before?" she thought before hearing Terrance telling Euphemia to stand down and mentioning that he was Abigail's brother.

"So, you're Abi's brother, huh?" she said, putting her strange familiarity with Euphemia to the back of her mind.

"That's right, and I don't care if you are a girl," Terrance declared as he glared at the sky-haired bluenette, "No one messes with my sister while I'm around; not even other girls."

"Hey, Terrance, how 'bout ya let the J-Man duel 'er, eh?" James spoke up, looking at his roommate pleadingly, "She's crossed a line in perverseness that even the J-Man dares not cross."

"Sorry, but she's mine," Terrance replied, though he did give his roommate a rather understanding look, knowing about his closet perverted nature, "As I said before, Abi's my sister, so this duel is mine."

"Be careful, Terry, I've already duelled her and she plays with a Water-Attribute themed deck!" Abigail called out, "Her strategy seems based on the enhancements of Nightmare Penguin, a Legendary Ocean and using other monsters to power up her Water Minotaur card!"

"Hey, no fair, you spoiled it," Amanda said in a tone of mock hurt, not really all that bothered that Abigail ruined her strategy, "Oh well, I suppose it's your measure of revenge, I suppose."

Terrance then unbuttoned his blazer and pulled it open, revealing six card holders; three on each side of the inside of his blazer.

"Wow, now that's style," Alicia said, clearly impressed by Terrance's multiple decks.

"Oh, so you followed your sister's example and got yourself multiple decks, huh?" Amanda said, raising an eyebrow of curiosity.

"Got that right," Terrance said simply, "Each of our decks represents one of the six attributes of Duel Monsters. We prefer to have balance in our decks; plus we also have a seventh deck filled with cards that we don't really need to act as a decoy in case any of our opponents try to sabotage our decks before a duel."

"Impressive strategy," Euphemia noted with a nod, "You know, Jaden told me of an incident that happened during his first year here; one of his friends was due to duel an Obelisk Blue with the stipulation that if he won, he'd swap dorms with his opponent, but his opponent tried to get rid of his deck, but luckily, he anticipated such a move and had six more decks ready."

"Wow, that guy must've been a genius," Yumi commented in awe.

Terrance smiled as he overheard Euphemia's statement. He knew that she was referring to his cousin, Bastion Misawa and it also served to remind him why he and Abigail had enrolled in Duel Academy in the first place. Bastion was one of two students still missing from the mysterious incidents that had occurred the previous year. He, along with East Academy's champion, Adrian Gecko were still unaccounted for. He knew that he and Abigail had better get started on their investigation soon. In fact they had been meaning to start when they first arrived, but things seemed to just keep getting in the way and they had both found themselves becoming side-tracked. However, he vowed that that would happen no more. He'd rescue his sister from this mysterious girl and then they would both get on with figuring out what happened to Bastion and investigate whether or not, his disappearance was in any way connected to the spate of disappearances four years ago, which he had become convinced Duel Academy had been trying to cover up.

"I'm getting side-tracked here," he thought, shaking his head as he remembered what he was doing.

"So then, shall we get started?" Amanda said as she inserted her deck into the deck slot of her duel disk, "Oh, and by the way, my name is Amanda, Amanda Ribbets."

"Terrance Richardson," Terrance said as he chose the deck on the middle left of his blazer and then inserted it into the deck slot of his duel disk.

"Terrance, such a nice name; just like your sister's," Amanda commented with a devious smile, "Too bad you're not a girl, though. I could've had a lot of fun then."

Both Terrance and Abigail cringed at that statement; Abigail remembering the bluenette's flirtatious nature during their duel and Terrance wondering just what this bluenette had done to his sister.

"Anyway, enough pleasantries," Amanda concluded in a more serious tone as she activated her duel disk and drew five cards.

"Couldn't agree with you more," Terrance said as he followed suit and drew five cards.

"GAME ON!" the both shouted in unison

**Terrance**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

"Ladies first," Terrance said sarcastically, nodding towards Amanda; telling her that the first turn was hers.

"You're too kind," Amanda replied with equal sarcasm in her tone as she drew her sixth card and looked over her hand, which consisted of Water Wall, Double Summon, Water Minotaur, Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord and Nightmare Penguin, which she just drew.

She then reached for her Water Minotaur (1000/1000) and placed it on the middle monster space of her duel disk and then a bright light lit up on the field's ground and Water Minotaur appeared and then summoned its water sword.

"First, I summon Water Minotaur in attack mode," Amanda announced as she then reached for her Double Summon card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot of her duel disk, "And then I play the spell card, Double Summon, which allows me to summon an additional monster to the field and I think I'll summon my next monster facedown in defence mode and get this; it's a water-attribute monster and my Water Minotaur gains five hundred extra attack points for each water-attribute monster that's out on the field."

As she spoke, a life-sized version of the Double Summon card appeared on the field behind the Water Minotaur and started to glow and Amanda then reached for her Nightmare Penguin card and placed it facedown in a horizontal position on the monster space to the left of the one the Water Minotaur currently occupied and a life-sized representation of a horizontal facedown card appeared on the field next to the Water Minotaur (1700/1000), who let out a roar as it felt the increase in its strength.

"Oh and before you get started on the seven hundred attack-point power increase when I said five hundred, my facedown monster also grants any water-attribute monster two hundred extra attack points whenever it's summoned to the field," Amanda explained before Terrance could point out the two hundred extra attack points, since she remembered Abigail pointing it out when she first summoned Nightmare Penguin in the facedown defence position.

She then reached for her Water Wall card and inserted it into the spell-trap slot to the left of the middle one, causing a facedown card to appear on the field behind her facedown Nightmare Penguin.

"And I conclude by placing a card facedown and that ends my turn," she concluded with a smirk, "Your turn, Terry, let's see it you can succeed where your sister's failed."

Terrance groaned, not really liking Amanda's smug sounding and somewhat playful tone as he drew his sixth card and looked over his hand, which consisted of Backfire, Solar Flare Dragon, Fire Trooper, Monster Reborn, Meteor Flare and Fox Fire which he just drew.

"Okay then, first I'll summon Solar Flare Dragon in attack mode," Terrance announced as he reached for his Solar Flare Dragon (1500/1000) card and placed it on the middle monster space and the Solar Flare Dragon appeared on the field and roared at Amanda and then Terrance took both his Backfire and Meteor Flare cards and placed the Backfire card in the far-right spell/trap slot and then placed the Meteor Flare card in the far left spell/trap slot of his duel disk, "And I'll place two cards facedown."

"A Fire-Attribute deck," Amanda noted, remembering her duel with Abigail since Abigail had also used a Fire-Attribute deck, "Ha, your sister used a Fire-Attribute deck against me and failed."

"But you seem to forget that I'm not my sister," Terrance countered with a smirk as he then looked over at Amanda's side of the side, assessing the situation.

"With Water Minotaur's attack points as seventeen hundred and my Solar Flare Dragon's attack points at fifteen hundred, attacking it would be suicide," he thought as his vision trailed over to Amanda's facedown defence monster and her facedown card, "I could however go after her facedown monster, which I'm sure is Nightmare Penguin, but she has a facedown card, which she'll no doubt activate when I call my attack. If what Abigail says is true, then Water Minotaur and Nightmare Penguin are essential to her strategy. She boasts Water Minotaur's attack points with Water-Attribute monsters, plus the Water Minotaur gains two hundred extra attack points thanks to Nightmare Penguin's effect, not to mention, any other Water-Attribute monsters she summons gets the same two hundred attack-point bonus thanks to Nightmare Penguin's effect."

He then looked over at his Meteor Flare facedown card.

"Oh well, I'll just have to risk it," he thought with a nod, "Besides, even if my attack doesn't get through, I can still use Solar Flare Dragon's effect as well as spring my Meteor Flare on her for additional damage."

"Okay, Solar Flare Dragon, attack her facedown monster," he said as he pointed at Amanda's facedown monster.

Solar Flare Dragon responded by opening its mouth and a fireball started to form in its mouth and once it was fully formed, Solar Flare Dragon hurled it towards Amanda's facedown monster.

"Not so fast, I activate the trap, Water Wall," Amanda announced as she pushed the spell/trap activation button on her duel disk and held her hand out over her Water Wall card as it rose up and then a wall of water rose up from the ground in front of Amanda's side of the field and the fireball hurled right into it before dispersing, "You see, every time an aqua-type or water-attribute monster is targeted, my Water Wall prevents the targeted monster from being destroyed as well as reducing all battle damage to zero, but since my monster's in defence mode, I would not have suffered any damage anyway."

* * *

><p>Abigail cringed from inside the tent behind Amanda as she witnessed what had happened. She also remembered her own duel with Amanda and remembered how she had walked into the same trap and ironically, Terrance had made the same mistake she had using the same monster she had as well.<p>

"This is the exact same strategy she used against me," she thought to herself, "I really hope Terry knows what he's doing. She may seem bubbly and carefree, but she can duel seriously when she puts her mind to it. I should know."

She could not help but think back to her own duel with Amanda in which Amanda had used her flirtatious nature to throw her off, but as soon as she had gotten wise to her game, Amanda proved that she was capable of duelling seriously, though she had kept up her flirtatious nature anyway just to make her nervous.

* * *

><p>Terrance just smirked as he looked over at his Meteor Flare card and decided to spring his own trap.<p>

"I knew that you'd have a trap waiting in the wings," he said somewhat smugly, "If I had to guess, that facedown monster is Nightmare Penguin, isn't it?"

"Yep," Amanda admitted with a smile, surprising Terrance who expected her to panic once the identity of her facedown monster had been revealed prematurely, "You got that in one and as soon as I draw A Legendary Ocean, my strategy will be complete and since many of your monsters are no doubt pyro-type monsters and A Legendary Ocean is treated as Umi, you'll be at a serious disadvantage."

Really, well I reveal my own trap card, Meteor Flare," Terrance announced as he pushed the spell/trap activation button on his duel disk causing his Meteor Flare card to rise up.

The image on the card displayed a picture of space with three spiralling pillars of fire; one from the bottom, one from the right and the last from the top left-hand corner shooting into a point in the background which appeared to display a red nebula cloud. A smaller spike of fire also shot out from the left towards the nebula.

"By discarding two cards from my hand and since you have more than three thousand life points, I can inflict two thousand points worth of damage to you," Terrance said as he took his Fox Fire and Fire Trooper cards and inserted them into the graveyard slot and then a football-sized asteroid surrounded by fire shot out of the card and hurled towards Amanda, who raised her arms in front of her face in defence and could not help but take a few steps back as she felt the phantom sensation of the asteroid slamming into her despite the fact that it was not real.

**Terrance**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 2000

"And if that's not enough for you, there's more," Terrance went on with a big grin on his face, causing Amanda to groan as she knew of Solar Flare Dragon's effect from her duel with Abigail, "Come my turn's end phase, Solar Flare Dragon does an additional five hundred points worth of damage to you."

"I already know that," Amanda said as she watched the Solar Flare Dragon power up its fireball to hurl at her, "Your sister also has that monster in her Fire-Attribute deck; in fact, she has three."

"I know that," Terrance said with a nod, "We did after all, help each other in constructing our decks and though we may had similar decks, you'll find that our decks are not identical."

The Solar Flare Dragon shot out its fireball at Amanda and Amanda; now well versed in Solar Flare Dragon's special ability, rose her arms over her face once again as the fireball slammed into her.

**Terrance**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 1500.

"That's great, like you're sister you managed to draw the equivalent of first blood," Amanda complimented with a smile, "Though you managed to deplete more of my life points in your first turn than she did."

* * *

><p>"Wow, it's his first turn and he's already depleted more than half Amanda's life points," Yumi said, clearly impressed from the side-lines.<p>

"He knew that she was setting up a trap, so he countered with one of his own," Reina commented as she nodded in approval of Terrance's strategy.

"You go Red-Boy!" Alicia cheered while jumping up and down, "Show that Sky-haired Floozy who's boos!"

Euphemia cringed at hearing the word, floozy as she remembered that it was Stella's pet name for her; either that or Pink-haired Floozy. However, hearing the name mentioned when it was not being directed at her sounded somewhat strange to her. She was so used to hearing Stella insult her with that name that she just could not picture anyone else being called that.

"Hey, you okay Euphie?" James said, noticing her cringing.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit surprised," Euphemia said with a nod, "Usually when I hear the word, floozy, it's usually Stella that says it and it's usually hurled at me. I guess I'm not used to hearing that word when it's not being directed at me."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," James commented as he thought it over and realised that Euphemia had a point; remembering Stella's pet insults for the pinkette.

"Anyway, let's just watch the duel," Euphemia said, clearly not wanting to talk about it any longer.

James nodded as Yumi looked towards the pinkette in wonder, wondering what it was that triggered her earlier flashback, which caused her to zone out once again. However, she knew that asking Euphemia was pointless since she knew that the pinkette probably could not remember. So, with that in mind, she turned her attention back to the duel, deciding that it could wait.

* * *

><p>Abigail looked on from inside Amanda's tent in astonishment. Her brother had assessed the situation and from what she heard, Terrance clearly knew that he was walking into a trap, but he had fortunately set up a counter-trap beforehand using Meteor Flare and Solar Flare Dragon's special ability and managed to take out more than half Amanda's life points and on his first turn. She also had a Meteor Flare card, but unfortunately for her, she had not managed to draw it during the course of her duel with Amanda.<p>

"Excellent work, Terry," she thought to herself, "Now all you have to do is keep up the momentum and you'll have this duel won in no time."

Unfortunately, during her duel with Amanda, when she had walked right into Amanda's trap, all she had to counter it was Solar Flare Dragon's special ability and like Amanda had said, despite Terrance having scored the first hit like she had done, he managed to deplete more of Amanda's life points than she had and Abigail, despite being pleased at her brother's performance, could not help but feel just a little miffed that her brother was doing better than her. However, she managed to suppress her feelings of jealousy and root for her brother, but the fact that he did better than her also gave her the added motivation to get better and improve her decks so that she may compete with him. Despite their close relationship, Abigail and Terrance were also rivals in Duel Monsters. Each of them constantly worked on their decks in an effort to outdo the other and whenever one of them lost and the other went on to defeat the same opponent, it would motivate the other to improve. Both twins had their fair share of wins and losses against one another and whenever they duelled against one another, regardless of the outcome, they both still worked to improve their decks. Of course, they did not let their rivalry get in the way of their friendship. Despite being rivals, they still cared deeply for one another; displayed when they help each other with tweaking their decks and both worked hard to ensure that the other was not left behind with one having too many wins against the other.

* * *

><p>Back with Terrance and Amanda, Amanda drew her next card, which turned out to be, A Legendary Ocean, which caused her to grin as she looked towards Terrance.<p>

"And the card I just drew is the final card I need for my strategy," she said as she pushed the button that opened up the field spell slot and placed A Legendary Ocean into it before it closed up again, "I play the field spell, A Legendary Ocean, which is treated as the field spell, Umi, by the way and in addition to that, all water-attribute monsters gain two hundred extra attack and defence points and all water-attribute monsters in both our hands have their level decreased by one, so it's too bad that you're not using your water-attribute deck, otherwise my strategy may have backfired."

Suddenly, the entire field changed to portray the image that was displayed in the A Legendary Ocean card, making it appear as if they were underwater with the sunken city in the background. However, Terrance did not panic since he knew that the water was just a hologram. Water Minotaur (1900/1200) roared once again as it felt the field spell enhance its strength, but Terrance paid it no mind as he focused entirely on Amanda.

"And now, I think I'll flip my Nightmare Penguin into the face-up position," the bluenette went on as she took her Nightmare Penguin (900/1800) card and flipped it face-up and into attack mode, "And thanks to his flip-effect, I can send any card you have out on the field back to your hand and I think I'll go for the facedown card you've yet to activate."

Nightmare Penguin (1100/2000) appeared in place of the facedown horizontal card and as Terrance removed his Backfire card, its holographic representation on the field transformed into a stream of energy and shot up into his hand as if making the life-sized version of the card appearing to shrink and Solar Flare Dragon (1300/800) appeared to groan in agony, feeling the effect of A Legendary Ocean sapping away some of its strength and if.

"And as you know, since Solar Flare Dragon is a pyro-type monster, he loses two hundred attack and defence points," Amanda said, explaining the reason for Solar Flare Dragon's decrease in points.

"I already know that," Terrance replied, sounding a bit annoyed, "I'm familiar with Umi and what it does and I'm also aware that the A Legendary Ocean card is treated as Umi when played on the field. Just finish your turn."

"My, my, someone's getting annoyed," the bluenette mocked tauntingly, "Could it be that you want to conclude this duel as quickly as possible in order to get your sister back?"

Terrance just groaned and Amanda nodded.

"I take that as a yes," she concluded with a devilish and somewhat seductive smile, "Very well then, I'm also eager to end this duel as quickly as possible for I want to be enrolled here."

"Just finish your turn," Terrance grumbled.

"Very well then," Amanda said as she turned to face her Water Minotaur, "Water Minotaur, attack his Solar Flare Dragon."

Water Minotaur nodded and jumped towards Terrance's Solar Flare Dragon, slashing its water sword across its chest, causing it to roar in pain before shattering and then disappearing.

**Terrance**: 3400 – **Amanda**: 1500

Terrance groaned as he removed his Solar Flare Dragon card and attempted to insert it into the graveyard slot, but to his shock, the graveyard slot would not accept the card.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that any monster that Water Minotaur destroys is automatically resummoned on my side of the field," Amanda explained, causing Terrance to groan, "And if that's not enough for you, any monster that my Water Minotaur destroys in battle and is resummoned to my side of the field automatically becomes a water-attribute monster."

"Water-attribute… but that means…" Terrance started to say, but then trailed off as he realised the full extent of Amanda's strategy.

* * *

><p>"Very clever," Euphemia commented as she observed the duel from the side-lines and listened to Amanda's speech, "What an effective strategy."<p>

"Huh, what do you mean, Euphie-chan?" Yumi asked curiously, clearly not understand what her pinkette friend was getting at.

"The J-Man's lost as well," James admitted as he looked at Euphemia questioningly, "Care you explain it to us."

"Yeah, yeah, just what's so great about Blue's strategy?" Alicia asked, looking really clueless.

"Amanda's Water Minotaur, her Nightmare Penguin, her A Legendary Ocean field spell, her Water Wall and her Water Minotaur's effects," Euphemia explained as she observed the situation, "You see, Water Minotaur gains five hundred extra attack points for each water-attribute monster that's out on the field. Nightmare Penguin is a water-attribute monster, but its special ability grants all other water-attribute monsters on the field two hundred extra attack points; so Water Minotaur gains its usual five hundred attack-point boost from Nightmare Penguin, plus two hundred the extra attack points from Nightmare Penguin's own effect and then there's A Legendary Ocean, which enhances all water-attribute monsters' attack and defence points by two hundred, which adds another two hundred attack points onto Water Minotaur along with its own and Nightmare Penguin's effects and given that each time a Water Minotaur destroys a monster, it summons the destroyed monster to its side of the field and changes its attribute to water, giving it another five hundred attack points and since the destroyed monster's attribute has been changed to water, it gains two hundred more defence points and four hundred more attack points; two hundred attack and defence points from A Legendary Ocean and an extra two hundred from Nightmare Penguin's effect and Water Wall's role is to make sure that none of those monsters are destroyed and therefore, Amanda can implement her strategy without fear of her opponent ruining her strategy, even if they manage to summon a monster capable of taking any of hers out."

"Right you are, Miss Felixton," Reina said, clearly impressed with the pinkette's deduction, "But this strategy also has a flaw."

"Yes, I know," Euphemia said with a nod, impressing the Ra Headmistress even further, "In Duel Monsters, you can only summon a maximum of five monsters out on the field at once and with that in mind, there's a limit to how strong Water Minotaur can become. With him and Nightmare Penguin occupying two spots on the field, Water Minotaur can only take out a maximum of three monsters before Amanda's monster spaces are full, so with that in mind, the maximum number of attack points Water Minotaur can have with this strategy is thirty-four hundred."

Yumi, James and Alicia all turned to look at Terrance in worry.

"Yeah, Euphie-chan, that's all well and all," Yumi said, letting her worry be known, "But Terrance might not be able to handle a monster with thirty-four hundred attack points, not to mention the other monsters on the field and even if he does have the necessary cards to deal with it, he'll have to last long enough to be able to draw them."

"Oh no, please don't lose, Red-Boy, your sister, Red needs you!" Alicia called out as if believing that her words could get Terrance out of his current predicament.

"Well, hopefully when his turn comes round, he'll be able to draw a card that'll turn things around," James said, sounding unsure, but hopeful.

* * *

><p>Back with Terrance and Amanda, Terrance grumbled as he threw his Solar Flare Dragon card over to Amanda and she caught it and placed it in the monster space to the right of the one that Water Minotaur occupied and Solar Flare Dragon (15001000) appeared on Amanda's side of the field.

"And don't forget, since he's now a water-attribute monster, he gets two hundred extra attack and defence points thanks to A Legendary Ocean as well as two hundred more attack points thanks to my Nightmare Penguin," Amanda explained as the Solar Flare Dragon (1900/1200) roared as it felt its strength increase, "And don't forget, my Water Minotaur also gains five hundred more attack points as well."

As if to emphasise its mistress's point, Water Minotaur (2200/1200) roared as it flexed its muscles.

"Luckily for you, Water Minotaur has already attacked this turn, but unfortunately, my Nightmare Penguin and your Solar Flare Dragon have still to attack," the bluenette went on as she pointed at Terrance and turned her gaze towards Nightmare Penguin, "Nightmare Penguin, the next attack is yours."

She then followed her statement up with a nod and the Nightmare Penguin responded by waddling over to Terrance and then gave him a rather fierce peck to his stomach, causing him to double over from the phantom sensation.

**Terrance**: 2300 – **Amanda**: 1500

"And now, Solar Flare Dragon, it's your turn," Amanda said with a smirk, "Attack your former master with Flaming Fire Blast!"

Solar Flare Dragon responded by firing a fireball towards its former master, causing Terrance to raise his arms over his face as the fireball made contact.

**Terrance**: 400 – **Amanda**: 1500

"Damn it!" Terrance cursed under his breath, "I'll just have to make my next turn count."

"You'll be happy to know that any monster summoned to my side of the field via Water Minotaur's effect has their own effects negate, so you won't have to worry about losing the duel this turn," Amanda commented and then frowned, "Though, I have to say, I'm feeling rather disappointed. I was expecting more of a challenge from you, but at this rate, I'll have this duel in in about one or two more turns. At least Abigail put up more of a fight."

"Huh, what was that?" Terrance asked in surprise.

"I said that your sister put up more of a fight against me," Amanda replied simply, "She was able to successfully utilise a burn strategy when it became apparent that it would've been difficult for her to destroy my monsters. In fact, most of the damage I took in that duel was from the life-point depleting effects of Abigail's monsters. In fact, before I defeated her, my life points were down to around three hundred and had she lasted one more turn, there's no doubt that your sister would've won."

Terrance just grimaced at that.

"Anyway, it's your turn now, Terry-boy," Amanda concluded, giggling at the nickname she had given Terrance.

Terrance sighed as he drew his next card from his deck and looked to find that it was Negate Attack.

"What, you've got to be kidding me," he thought with a groan.

"What's the matter, got a bad draw?" Amanda shouted as she noticed his expression.

* * *

><p>"Seems he got a bad draw," James groaned from the side-lines, "That sucks."<p>

"No, that's bad," Yumi commented in alarm, "If he drew a useless card, then Amanda's won."

"Oh no, but that means that Red will still be Blue's prisoner," Alicia said in equal alarm as she looked over at Abigail worryingly.

"Don't fret, this duel's not over yet," Euphemia said as she looked over at Terrance with a hopeful look on her face, "He may have gotten a bad draw, but perhaps he'll be able to make the most of it and stall for time."

"I hope you're right, Pinky," Alicia said in a worrying tone, fearful for Abigail.

However, as the students were paying attention to the duel, they had yet to notice that Reina had gone missing. She was no longer standing beside them, but they were so focussed on the duel that they had failed to notice her absence.

* * *

><p>"Come on, Terry, you can do this," Abigail thought from inside Amanda's tent, "Try to make the most of your draw. If you can't turn the duel around, then you can at least stall for time."<p>

She knew that her brother had gotten a bad draw and it worried her. She knew that if Terrance did not do something, then Amanda would win the duel on her next turn and if Amanda won, the bespectacled girl shuddered at the thought of remaining the bluenette's prisoner; fearful of what she may end up doing to her the longer she remained her prisoner. She knew that Amanda did have an awful lot of patience and was willing to wait till Chancellor Sheppard gave into her demands, but Abigail knew that Amanda's patience would eventually run out and she feared that the bluenette would take it out on her or worse… should the police get involved, she had visions of Amanda using her as a human shield to avoid arrest.

"Terrance Richardson, you'd better win this duel or there'll be the devil to pay!" she declared aloud as she glared over at her brother with a look that basically said, "Win or else".

* * *

><p>Terrance gulped as he caught his sister's glare and then hesitantly nodded, unsure if he could deliver on Abigail's demand.<p>

"My, my, someone's getting grouchy," Amanda commented playfully as she turned her head back to stare at Abigail, causing the bespectacled girl to cringe.

Terrance shook his head, totally disgusted by the sky-haired bluenette's behaviour.

"Lay off my sister, she don't swing that way," he said as he gathered up his courage and glared at Amanda as he reached for the Negate Attack card that he just drew, "You should be focussing on me since I'm not done yet."

He then placed the Negate Attack card in the middle spell/trap slot of his duel disk and then reached for his Backfire card that Amanda sent back to his hand with Nightmare Penguin's flip effect and placed it in the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle one and then reached for the Monster Reborn card and placed it in the spell/trap slot to the right of the middle one.

"I place three cards facedown and that's all I can do," he said simply while hoping that Amanda won't be able to destroy his Negate Attack card, since that was the card he needed if he was to remain in the duel.

"And should I survive this turn, hopefully my next draw will be something better," he added in his thoughts, "I honestly don't know if I can hold out much longer."

"I honestly expected something like that," Amanda said as she witnessed the three facedown cards appear on the field, "Not much you can do apart from stall, is there?"

She then drew her next card, which turned out to be Moray of Greed, which caused her to frown and then she looked over at Terrance's field.

"Well, since you have three facedown cards and could potentially spring on me when I call my attacks, I think I'll do the wise thing and forego this turn."

"Huh?" Terrance said in surprise, unable to believe that Amanda had decided to pass her turn, but then burst into a grin as he realised that he could potentially take advantage of the situation and drew his next card, which turned out to be Card of Sanctity, which caused his grin to widen even more.

"Excellent, with this I can replenish my hand," he said aloud, causing Amanda to raise an eyebrow.

He then inserted the card into the far right spell/trap slot and a life-sized version appeared on the field with the card image facing Amanda.

"I play the spell card, Card of Sanctity, which lets us both draw till we're holding six cards," Terrance said as the card on the field started to glow and since Terrance's hand was empty, he drew six cards and Amanda drew four.

"You do realise that that spell card could potentially help me as well," Amanda pointed out.

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Terrance said in a tone that suggested that he did not really care, "But it's a risk I'm willing to take."

He then looked over his hand, which consisted of Mystical Space Typhoon, Fissure, Emergency Provisions, Bonding Flames DNA Surgery and Graceful Charity.

Terrance frowned at the lack of monster cards, but he was not all that worried since he's replenished hand would serve his needs for the moment.

"Not what I was hoping for, but it'll do for now," he said with a smile before reaching for his Mystical Space Typhoon card and inserted it in the same spell/trap slot he had inserted Card of Sanctity, which was now in the graveyard, "First I play the spell card, Mystical Space Typhon, which allows me to destroy one spell or trap card on the field and I'll choose your Water Wall card."

The Mystical Space Typhoon card appeared on the field and emitted a wind that blew right over to Amanda's Water Wall card and when the wind slammed into her, it shattered before vanishing.

"Not bad," Amanda complimented with a smile, clearly impressed, "But it'll take more than that to take me out."

"I know that," Terrance said in acknowledgement, "Which is why I'm not done yet. Next, I'll play the spell card, Fissure, which allows me to destroy the monster with the lowest attack points on your side of the field, so goodbye Nightmare Penguin."

Amanda's eyes widened in astonishment, though she was more impressed than alarmed as Terrance inserted his Fissure card into the far left trap/spell slot of his duel disk and then a hole suddenly appeared under Nightmare Penguin, causing it to look down and then it tried to run towards the edge before gravity finally took effect and it fell in a Loony Toons like fashion. There were a glow that emitted from the bottom of the hole before it vanished and Water Minotaur (1900/1200) and Solar Flare Dragon (1700/1200) both groaned as they lost the two hundred extra attack points that Nightmare Penguin had provided them with its presence.

"You sister did the same thing to my Nightmare Penguin," Amanda noted as she recalled Abigail taking her penguin out with the same card Terrance had just used, "Too bad for her that I was able to revive it with Monster Reborn though."

"I'm not done," Terrance said, either having not heard or choosing to ignore the sky-haired bluenette, "I next play the spell card, Emergency Provisions."

He then inserted the card into the far right spell/trap slot and it appeared on the field.

"And for each spell or trap I destroy, I gain a thousand additional life points," Terrance announced as he removed, Backfire, Negate Attack and Monster Reborn from their slots before sending them to the graveyard, causing their holographic representations on the field to shatter and vanish.

**Terrance**: 3400 – **Amanda**: 1500

* * *

><p>"Alright, Terrance's back in the game," Yumi cheered excitedly from the side-lines.<p>

"Don't celebrate yet," James commented as he stared towards the field, "He may have gotten more life points and dealt with one of her monsters, but don't forget, she has two more monsters out on the field and between them, they have more than enough attack points to finish him off."

"It doesn't look like he's done yet, though," Euphemia commented before Yumi could panic.

* * *

><p>"Next, I'll play the spell card, Graceful Charity, which allows me to draw three cards from my deck, so long as I discard two of them," Terrance went on as he inserted the Graceful Charity card into the middle spelltrap slot and the angel depicted in the image appeared on the field and raised her hands and created a glowing ball of light, nearly blinding Amanda as she rose her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes and Terrance drew his three cards, which turned out to be Volcanic Slicer, Ceasefire and Pot of Greed.

He then inserted Volcanic Slicer and Ceasefire into the graveyard slot.

"And then, I play Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two additional cards from my deck," he went on as he inserted his Pot of Greed in the spell-trap slot to the left of the one in the middle, causing the pot with the face depicted in the image to appear on the field and gave a sinister laugh as Terrance drew two more cards from his deck which turned out to be, another Negate Attack and a second Fox Fire.

He then placed his second Negate Attack card in the middle spell/trap slot and then took his second Fox Fire (300/100) and placed it on the middle monster space horizontally, indicating that he had summoned it in defence mode.

"I then place one card facedown and summon Fox Fire in defence mode," he announced as his facedown card appeared on the field and Fox Fire appeared in a kneeling position in front of the facedown card with its back to it.

"And that ends my turn," he concluded with a nod in Amanda's direction, letting her know that it was her turn.

"Finally," she said as she looked over her hand, which consisted of Pot of Greed, Dimensional Prisoner, Reload, Terroking Salmon, which she had drawn when Terrance had played Card of Sanctity and also in her hand were Moray of Greed, which she had drawn on the turn she had passed and Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord from her opening hand, "This more like it."

She then turned to her Water Minotaur and nodded at it.

"Water Minotaur, attack his Fox Fire," she said as she turned towards the Solar Flare Dragon, "And Solar Flare Dragon, attack him directly."

Both monsters nodded at their mistress and then lunged towards Terrance's side of the field.

"Not so fast, I activate my Negate Attack trap card," Terrance said as he pushed the spell/trap activation button on his duel disk and his Negate Attack card rose up and shot out a beam of light that stopped the two monsters in their tracks and forced them to retreat, "And with that, you're forced to end your battle phase."

"Fine, I end my turn," Amanda said dismissively.

"I could've done more, I know," she admitted to herself in her thoughts, "But I really want to show him the monster I used to defeat his sister. It just wouldn't be fair if I defeated him without him seeing how I defeated his sister."

Terrance then drew from his deck and frowned as he saw that he had drawn Firewall.

"I'll think I'll pass this turn," he announced.

"Whatever rocks your boat," Amanda said as she drew her next card, which caused her to grin as she saw that it was Levia Dragon – Daedalus and then she looked up over at Terrance as she bustled with excitement, "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You see, on my last turn, I could've done more, but then I'd have run the risk of defeating you before I had a chance to show you how I defeated Abigail."

"Oh really," Terrance replied simply in an unimpressed tone, "You do realise that by doing that, it may cost you dearly when it comes back to bite you in the ass."

"I'm not all that worried," Amanda said dismissively with a wave of her hand and then she moved her hand towards her Water Minotaur card and then removed it, "Anyway, I sacrifice my Water Minotaur in order to summon Levia Dragon – Daedalus to the field as she replaced the Water Minotaur card with Levia Dragon –Daedalus (2600/1500).

On the field, the ground below Water Minotaur started to glow and then a wave of distortion flowed up from its feet to its head, causing it to vanish as the wave passed over it and then the enormous serpentine dragon that had defeated Abigail; Levia Dragon – Daedalus (2800/1700)appeared on the field and roared at Terrance as A Legendary Ocean enhanced its attack and defence points.

"Normally, it would've taken two sacrifices to summon this monster since he's a level-seven monster," Amanda explained with excitement, "But thanks to A Legendary Ocean, his level is decreased by one, making him a level-six monster, meaning I only need one monster to sacrifice in order to summon him."

* * *

><p>From inside Amanda's tent, Abigail cringed as she shuddered; remembering her own experience with that very monster the previous night.<p>

"That's the monster that defeated me last night," she thought to herself, "Terry, please be careful. That monster has a nasty ability that renders the opponent defenceless."

* * *

><p>"She actually held back on her last turn to call this monster out?" Yumi said from the side-lines.<p>

"Yeah, I'm guessing that that's the monster that defeated Abigail," Euphemia replied with a nod, "Though, holding back in a duel can be a costly mistake. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how Terrance handles this."

"You can do it, Red-Boy!" Alicia cheered as she spurred Terrance on, "Beat that blue-haired kidnapper back to where she came from!"

* * *

><p>Amanda groaned at hearing Alicia's insult, but almost immediately recovered and pushed the button for the field spell slot on her duel disk.<p>

"And check out Daedalus's special ability," she went on from her previous statement, "By sacrificing A Legendary Ocean, Daedalus here can destroy all other cards present on the field."

She then removed her A Legendary Ocean card from her field spell slot and discarded it to the graveyard and the surrounding scenery that had been generated by the A Legendary Ocean faded out of existence and the Levia Dragon – Daedalus (2600/1500) fired a purple energy beam from its mouth down at the Solar Flare Dragon and once the Solar Flare Dragon had been destroyed, it moved the energy beam over to the Fox Fire, destroying it.

"And that leaves you wide open for a direct attack," the bluenette continued to boast as she pointed at the redhead boy, "Daedalus, show him what I mean by attacking him directly just like you did to his sister."

Levia Dragon – Daedalus's response was to lunge over at Terrance and slam its metal helmeted head into him, causing him to stumble backwards.

**Terrance**: 800 – **Amanda**: 1500

* * *

><p>"Terrance!" Yumi screamed as she got ready to run over to him, but Euphemia caught her by the shoulder.<p>

"No, don't go over to him, this duel's still on," the pinkette said in a stern tone, looking at the Japanese girl with a stern look on her face in order to prevent her from arguing with her, "He still has eight hundred life points left. If you go over to him now and touch him, he'll automatically be disqualified."

"But…" Yumi started to say, but Euphemia's look only intensified, causing Yumi to shut her mouth.

* * *

><p>Back with Terrance and Amanda, Terrance somehow managed to regain his balance without falling over as Levia Dragon – Daedalus retreated back to its original position.<p>

"And that ends my turn," Amanda announced as Levia Dragon – Daedalus returned to her.

"And now, it's my turn," Terrance said as he drew his card and saw that it was Fire Dragon, which caused his face to light up.

"My, your mood's sure changed," Amanda said upon noticing the expression on his face, "Drew a good card I take it?"

"Oh yeah, you can bet your bottom dollar I've drawn a good card," Terrance replied with an evil grin on his face, "And with the cards I have in my hand, I have everything I need to bring you down and rescue my sister. Mark my words Miss Ribbets, you're gonna pay for kidnapping my sister."

"Oh really?" Amanda said as she raised a curious eyebrow, "Then by all means, show me what you intend to do."

He then reached for his Bonding Flames cards, which showed the image of a fire with a reddish orange hue in the background with the top of the image depicting a black sky with a transparent white as the border between the reddish orange and the sky; apparently supposed to be smoke. However, what two flames in the fire were at the foreground and moved towards each other and touched with a red line round the two flames where they touched, acting like a string binding them together. Terrance took the card and inserted into the middle spell/trap slot and the card appeared on the field.

"I activate the spell card, Bonding Flames," he announced as he then took his Fire Dragon card, "When I activate this card and there are three or more fire-attribute monsters in my graveyard, it enables me to sacrifice them in order to summon Fire Dragon."

He then placed his Fire Dragon (2800/2600) card on the middle monster space of his duel disk and on the field, a huge serpentine dragon that appeared to be made entirely out of fire roared as it appeared.

"And I'll then place one card facedown," Terrance said, reaching for his DNA surgery card, which depicted the image a man with elf-like ears wearing a green surgical gown and hat with red gloves and dark glasses and a surgical mask looking ready to perform surgery and two blonde-haired women with dark bluish grey skin and black eyes that appeared to be drawn on and wearing identical gowns and gloves to the man, only their hats wear a dark brownish pink colour and the woman of the right was holding a chart underneath her left arm and the woman of the left was holding a white rod of some sort.

He placed the card in the middle spell/trap slot and its life-sized representation appeared behind the Fire Dragon.

"That thing's going to end the duel?" Amanda said, raising her eyebrow questioningly as she could not deny that the Fire Dragon looked rather impression, "I don't mean to burst your bubble, but that thing may be stronger than my Levia Dragon, but if you attack with that, I'll only lose two hundred life points."

"I'm well aware of that," Terrance said dismissively as he pushed the spell/trap activation button on his duel disk, "Which is why I activate the trap card, DNA Surgery."

The card on the field rose up and started to glow.

"Here's how it works," Terrance explained, "I declare a type of monster and all monsters on the field become that type of monster and I'll go for plant-type."

Suddenly, leaves and flowers suddenly started to sprout from the two serpentine dragons, causing them to both roar in disapproval.

"Plant-type, why plant-type?" Amanda asked, not looking too happy with her dragon's new look.

"That'll be made apparent right now," Terrance said as he pointed at Levia Dragon – Daedalus, "Fire Dragon, attack her Levia Dragon – Daedalus and end this now."

Fire Dragon roared and gave its master a nod before opening its mouth and started to power up a fireball.

Levia Dragon Daedalus (0/1500) suddenly started to writhe in pain as it felt its strength being sapped from it and Amanda's eyes widened in shock as it soon become apparent why Terrance had used DNA Surgery and chosen plant-type monsters.

"I see, so when your Fire Dragon does battle with plant-type monsters, their attack points are reduced to zero," she deduced with a nod.

"Right you are," Terrance said with a nod of his own, "Whenever Fire Dragon does battle with earth-attribute and plant-type monsters, their attack points are automatically reduced to zero."

Amanda just nodded in acceptance as Fire Dragon unleashed its fireball that hurled straight into Levia Dragon – Daedalus, causing it to shriek in pain both shattering and disappearing.

**Terrance (winner)**: 800 – **Amanda**: 0

* * *

><p>"Terrance did it," Abigail thought from inside Amanda's tent, "He won."<p>

She could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that she was now free. In truth, she had been a bit fearful that Terrance was going to lose and she would still be stuck with Amanda for who knew how long. Now she could calm down. She saw that Euphemia, Yumi, James and Alicia were already walking towards the tent intent on freeing her.

"Thank goodness," she thought to herself.

* * *

><p>Outside, Amanda just smiled sadly as the holograms faded from existence and let out a defeated sigh, knowing that her chances of getting enrolled at Duel Academy now were virtually non-existent. She had worked so hard on the written portions of the Entrance Exams for the past three-years, but unfortunately, every time it came to making it on time for the field portion, which involved duelling against a proctor to gain entrance into Duel Academy, she had always prioritised the look of her hair over making it on time; clearly expecting the Duel Academy staff to wait on her. It did not seem fair to her. She spent hours and hours doing up her hair. One time, she had even stayed up all night doing her hair. Of course, she knew that it was foolish, but she did not care; her hair just had to be perfect. She just could not let go of her perfection streak over her hair.<p>

"It seems that I'm not meant to be enrolled here," she said with a rather sad sigh, "I don't care what anyone says, my hair has to be perfect; it just has to be, otherwise there's no point."

Terrance opened his mouth to reply but then the noise of a truck's engine caught his and everyone else's attention, causing them to turn in the direction opposite the where the entrance of the tent was and they saw what looked like a dark greenish brown flatbed truck with grey tarpaulin situated at the back, acting as a roof on the flatbed area driving in their direction.

"Huh, now what do you suppose that is?" Terrance said to himself.

"Yeah, ask me; like I know," Amanda said in a sarcastic tone, clearly not impressed.

The truck drove up to them and then a group of eight men, all looking build like brick outhouses with stern looks on their face jumped out the back.

"Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut," they said, repeating the same word over and over again as they surrounded Terrance and Amanda, though their attention was mainly focused on Amanda rather than Terrance.

Each man wore an identical uniforms with dark grey boots with a light shade of grey outlining the top rim of the boots and a stripe ran down the centre of the front of the boot where the shin was and two stripes ran over the top of the foot of the boots with the vertical stripe merging with the first horizontal stripe. They also wore blue trousers with two grey strap-on bags strapped round there upper legs at the sides. They also had on black belts and grey tops with two rather thin armbands round each of their upper arms. They also had dark grey curved shoulder guards with dark green braces attached to the front of each shoulder guard and running down their fronts to their belts. The same could be said for the back as well. Over their hands, they wore dark brown gloves and over their forearms, they had on dark grey arm-guard style bracelets that ran from their wrists all the way up to just underneath their elbows. They each had dark thin-rimmed sunglasses over their eyes and wore dark navy-blue cylinder shaped caps on the tops of their heads and each man looked like the sort of person anyone wanted to mess with a stone-hard look on each of their faces.

"Hey, what's going on?" Yumi shouted out to the men.

"Silence!" a rather harsh and strict female voice came as two of the men standing in front of Amanda parted and let a woman with two men; one on either side of her walk up to her.

All three of them wore identical uniforms just like the eight men, but their uniforms were different. The two men on either side of the woman wore dark bluish grey boots, dark green trousers with dark bluish grey belts with silver rectangular plated buckles round their waists, a dark green jacket with the top styled like an academy blazer with a white outline on the edges of the band and white lines highlighting the shield like design at the top. They also wore dark blue capes attached to the bottom of the shoulder bands at the back along with similar sunglasses to the eight other men, but instead of cylinder caps, they wore dark green berets with an ovular pin pinned on the left side of the beret above their left eyes. The woman's uniform differed slightly as her boots were like the boots that the female students wore and was the same colour as her jacket and instead of trousers, she wore a skirt that went down to halfway between her hips and knees and also, unlike her male colleagues, she did not wear sunglasses. She had shoulder-length bluish grey hair and greyish brown eyes and the look on her face seemed to scream, "Don't mess with me" as it was clear that she was the leader of this group.

"Just who the heck are you guys?" Terrance asked curiously, causing the female leader to turn her head towards him and level a glare at him that made him feel as if he had significantly shrunk.

"Not that it's any of your concern, but we are the DAS or Disciplinary Action Squad," the woman explained in a cold and hard tone with a hint of anger and annoyance laced in with it, "We are charged with enforcing Duel Academy's rules, though we are only called upon when a student is in serious trouble."

"Like what, smuggling weapons onto academy grounds?" Alicia laughed jokingly as she took note of the militaristic nature of the DAS members.

However, the leader just shot her a rather annoyed glare that caused Alicia to take a few step backwards and like Terrance, she felt as if she was rapidly shrinking.

"I don't think it's a good idea to joke around with those guys," Abigail, who had been untied by Euphemia and Yumi, whispered to her roommate as she walked over to her, "They look like they mean business and from the looks of it, they're in no mood for jokes."

"Gee, doesn't anyone think this is just a little bit overkill here?" James whispered to no one in particular.

"I hear ya," Euphemia whispered in agreement, "With the way they look, it's like you'd expect a shootout to occur."

"Enough!" the leader shouted, having overheard them and already becoming annoyed with their chatter, "Miss Reina Shizuki; the Headmistress of the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorm called us over here and told us about an intruder."

"Well, look no further, there she is," the voice of Reina came, causing the students to all turn and saw Reina standing to the left of the truck and motioning towards Amanda.

She then walked over to the group of students with a solemn look on her face.

"And I suggest that you don't joke around with the DAS," she said to them as her look turned serious, "They don't like to be mocked and take their job very seriously."

"But, Shizuki-sensei, they look more like a military organisation," Yumi said allowed, causing the DAS members to all turn and glare at her, "James's right, they're just overkill. One would think that they were being taken away to be tortured."

Reina sighed as she shook her head. Even though she was fairly new to Duel Academy, she already knew how things worked; especially when it came to disciplinary procedures involving students. The DAS did indeed look more like an army and a disciplinary group and yes, like Euphemia had said, with the way they conducted things, one would expect that they expected to engage in a shootout. However, nothing was far from the truth. They were only meant to be an intimidation factor. They were only ever called out to deal with the most extreme breeches of the rules… in other words, when a student had gotten into really serious trouble. They all did not look friendly or the sorts of people one wanted to mess with or get on the bad side of, but then again, that was the whole point. Their hard-tough, "don't mess with us" nature was supposed to intimidate the students they went after so that they would be scared into admitting their guilt… in other words, it was simply to guarantee an easy confession, though they had been criticised in the past by parents, concerned that they may have at one point or other gotten the wrong person and even though in the past they had always been right and had gotten the right people, many parents still criticised them saying that it would only be a matter of time before a student confessed to something he or she did not do all because of their intimidating stares. However, Chancellor Sheppard assured them that it was not just the interrogations that established a student's guilt. They also sought out evidence to prove or disprove a person's guilt.

Anyway, the DAS members shook their heads, deciding to attend to the matter at hand. Their leader then walked up to Amanda and glared furiously at her.

"Your name!" she demanded in a rather harsh and demanding tone.

"Amanda Ribbets," Amanda said with a sigh, though she did feel intimidated by this woman and resisted the urge to just turn and run; not that she would have gotten very far since the other members of the DAS were all surrounding her and would have no doubt moved to grab her if she tried to escape.

"Amanda Ribbets," the DAS leader repeated with a satisfied nod and then shot her a stern stare, "You will come with us and you will be held here until the police come to arrest you."

"I understand," Amanda said in acknowledgement with a nod, "I suppose it can't be helped."

Euphemia, Yumi, Terrance, Abigail, James and Alicia all watched as the DAS escorted Amanda back to the truck and they all could not help but feel just a bit of sympathy for her. Even Abigail, the girl whom Amanda had held prisoner could not help but sympathise with her; even if only slightly. After all, all Amanda wanted was to get enrolled and even though she had no one to blame but herself for missing the Entrance Exams for three years in a row, they all felt that the DAS were just a tad too extreme. Even Amanda did not deserve what they believed they would put her through. To them, they felt that Amanda must believe that some deity up in the heavens had it in for her. However, they knew better than to try and stop them. After all, they had skipped class just so they could go and look for and rescue Abigail. They knew that Reina probably explained the situation to them and took the fall for them, but from the looks on the members of the DAS's faces, they looked like the sort of people that would easily be tempted to reconsider in they felt that they were rubbed the wrong way and so, they did nothing aside from watch Amanda as she was led into the back of the truck and to them, she looked as if she was going to the gallows.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in the small land of Misgarth far from Duel Academy in a beautiful white mansion in the Misgarth countryside in one of the many rooms, a man sat in front of what looked like a TV screen displaying the image of a man with short blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes.<p>

"Yes, I understand," the man in front of the TV screen said, "Thank you, Prince Schneizel."

"No, thank you, Varos," Schneizel, the man in the TV screen said, "If not for your knowledge, I would not have been able to have come up for the plans for Operation Damocles. It was your Prince's idea of a laser satellite that gave me the idea for the Damocles in the first place and for that, I thank you. However, with the technology in my world, I'm unable to construct a laser satellite like the one Prince Ojin had built since none of the three superpowers here have taken steps to move into space; not the EU, not the Chinese Federation and definitely not Britannia."

"I consider it an honour, Prince Schneizel," the man in front of the TV screen, Varos said to Schneizel, "And I wish you luck on your endeavours."

"Why, thank you," Schneizel said, sounding flattered, "Anyway, I'm sure that you have important matters to attend to, so I shall not keep you occupied any longer."

Varos nodded and the TV screen automatically switched itself off. However, just as Varos was about to get up, an elderly man suddenly walked into the room after opening the huge door that was almost as high as the ceiling.

"I do apologise for the intrusion, Master Varos," the man said in a rather professional tone, "I know that your orders were that you were not to be disturbed, but I have rather some alarming news about the mistress, your daughter, Amanda."

"It's quite alright Xerros, my conversation with Prince Schneizel just concluded," Varos said in a rather calm and understanding tone, "So then, what news of my estranged runaway daughter?"

"Well, Master, it seems that she's been trying to get enrolled in Duel Academy for the past three years, but unfortunately for her, she's always been late for the Entrance Exams," the man, Xerros, who was obviously Varos's butler explained as Varos listened intently, "Unfortunately, this year, she decided to take matters into her own hands and though I don't know the details, it seems that whatever she was trying, she's been caught and awaiting the police to come and take her away."

"Really?" Varos said, raising an eyebrow sounding as if he was disappointed, but Xerros knew that he was faking it.

He knew that Varos and his daughter never really saw eye to eye and that Amanda absolutely despised him since he mostly pampered his former wife's daughter from her previous marriage, the Pro-League Duellist, Marcella Matthews. He did not know the full details about why and neither did he pry since he knew that it was none of his business, but he did know that ever since Varos's wife had died, Amanda had become rather distant from her father and half-sister and downright despised them both. She had run away from home, disappearing and wanting nothing to do with her father or half-sister. However, Varos had known where she had gone and had secretly kept tabs on her… simply if nothing else, just to pester and annoy her.

"Well, if she wanted to get enrolled in Duel Academy, why didn't she just come to me?" Varos went on in his tone of mock-hurtfulness, "I'd be more than happy to help her get enrolled this late in the semester."

He then turned to Xerros with a rather devious grin on his face.

"Xerros, start making arrangements, I've got a phone call to make," he said looking rather ecstatic, "If Mandy wants to enrol in Duel Academy, then I'll be more than happy to oblige in helping her."

"Yes sir," Xerros said with a nod, though he knew that Varos was only helping his daughter just to anger her since he knew that Amanda did not want any help whatsoever from her father.

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of the next chapter<strong>

Euphemia wakes up after having a strange dream, which she cannot remember/

"_My, my, what a strange dream," Euphemia says in confusion, "I can't remember what it was about, but why do I get the feeling that that girl that kidnapped Abigail, Amanda was in it?_

"_What, you were dreaming about Amanda?" Yumi says in shock._

"_I honestly can't remember, but I get the feeling that she was in my dream," Euphemia admits._

Meanwhile, Amanda is in Chancellor Sheppard's office await the police to come and take her away, but then Varos appears on a TV screen, shocking and infuriating Amanda.

"_Oh no, not you again," Amanda says with a frustrated groan, clearly not happy with the situation, "Don't you know that I despise you?"_

"_Now, now, Mandy-dearest, is that anyway to speak to your father?" Varos says in mock hurt, "Especially since I'm calling to ensure that you get what you want."_

"_I'd rather become a cheap whore working in a brothel than accept any help you have to offer," Amanda replies in disgust._

Varos tells Chancellor Sheppard and Dr Crowler, who's also present that he's sorry for what Amanda's done, but tells them that he's made arrangements for her to get accepted into Duel Academy.

Naturally, Chancellor Sheppard and Dr Crowler protest, but Varos reveals that he knows about the disappearances of several students and threatens to make it public if they don't comply.

"_That's outrageous!" Crowler screams, "The disappeared students were all returned three years ago!"_

"_Ah, but the public don't know that, do they?" Varos counters._

"_Save it, I'd rather go down that accept your help," Amanda spits venomously._

"_Well tough luck, Mandy-dear, I'm helping you whether you want me to or not," Varos states smugly._

Chancellor Sheppard and Dr Crowler are both surprised at Amanda's attitude, but before they can think about it, the door to the office opens and Euphemia, Yumi, Zukasu, Terrance, Abigail and James fall into the room, having clearly been listening from the other side.

Varos looks on in interest, but spots Euphemia and suddenly a wave of recognition materialises on his face, which Yumi notices.

"_Hold on, that girl, could she be Prince Schneizel's missing…" Varos says to himself before trailing off._

Later, after the whole situation is sorted, Yumi has taken her friends to the well she discovered while searching for Abigail to show them what she found.

"_Here, this is the well I found while I was looking for Abigail," Yumi says excitedly, "For some reason it's full of monster cards."_

"_All these monster cards are low-level monsters with little to no attack points," Euphemia notes, "They must've been dumped here by students who believed that they were too weak to be of any help."_

As they look around the area, Euphemia suddenly starts hearing strange incoherent noises and sees strange distortions all over the entire area and suddenly feels a bitter wave of hostility coming from all round the place.

"_Hey, guys, maybe we should leave," Euphemia says in a panicking tone, "I suddenly get the strange feeling that we're not welcome here."_

"_Oh you're just imagining things, Euphie-chan," Yumi says dismissively._

However, Euphemia is interrupted from her thoughts when Amanda appears in a Ra Yellow girls' uniform and with a Ra Yellow duel disk.

However, her presence is not that well appreciated; especially by Terrance, James and Abigail.

"_What do you want?" Abigail says bitterly, still miffed over being kidnapped._

"_Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, we don't want ya here," James says with equal bitterness in his tone._

"_I want to duel her," Amanda says, motioning towards Euphemia, who looks on in surprise._

"_What, me, why?" Euphemia asks in confusion, though she's suddenly hit with a sense of déjà vu when she looks at the bluenette._

"_I know I've seen you somewhere before, but I can't remember where," Amanda replies honestly, "I'm hoping to jog my memory with this duel."_

Everyone stares in shock at Euphemia as Amanda explains why she sought them out and Euphemia looks equally surprised, though she realises the déjà vu feeling within her.

"_Okay, I'll duel you, but honestly, I'm sure I've never seen you before," Euphemia says, sounding unsure of herself._

Both Euphemia and Amanda prepare to duel.

"GAME ON!" they both yell in unison.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

Euphemia wins, though she still cannot remember where she had seen Amanda before and she along with her friends all leave, leaving Amanda to ponder by herself.

"_I guess they're still pretty bitter over what I did to Abigail; not that I blame them," Amanda says to herself with a rather sad sigh._

However, as Amanda recovers from her lose and cold-shoulder treatment, she suddenly remembers just where she has seen Euphemia before.

However, as she runs after them, Jaden appears from out of nowhere, jumping down from a tree branch and before Amanda can contemplate what's going on; Jaden uses his powers to put her to sleep and suppress all of Amanda's memories involving Euphemia while wondering just how it's possible that someone from his world could possibly know Euphemia.

"_Next time: Where have I seen you before?" Jaden says, "Weird name, I know, but I'm more concerned about how it's possible that someone from this world knows about Euphemia, who's from an entirely different world."_

Meanwhile, back in Misgarth, Varos contacts Schneizel and tells him about Euphemia.

However, Schneizel is sceptical, but agrees to send some of his men into the Yu-Gi-Oh! World to investigate.

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Fire Dragon

**Attribute** – Fire

**Type** – Dragon/Effect

**Level** – 8

**ATK/DEF** – 2800/2600

**Info** – This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by the effect of Bonding Flames. When this card is face-up on the field, the ATK of EARTH monster and Plant-Type monsters become 0. When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon the 3 FIRE monsters used to summon it.

"_Wow, so that's Fire Dragon," Jaden says, "Bastian had that card."_

"_Yep," the author admits._

"_Too bad he never played it though," Jaden says in disappointment, "It was only shown during the opening credits of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, but never actually played in the show itself."_

"_Yep and this is my idea of how it's summoned to the field," the author says._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's notes<strong> – Finally, I managed to get another chapter done. Sorry for the delay, I started writing this chapter months ago, but got side-tracked by other things. After the next chapter, will be the very first Shadow Game, but it'll be a sort of taster… a preview if you will. Shadow Games won't start becoming common until after the School Duel. As for Rolo and Geass suppression pills, I know that there were no such pills in cannon, but after looking up Geass Runaway and how it's initiated and since Rolo's been constantly using his Geass and since his Geass could prove lethal whenever he activates it, I came up with the pills in an effort to explain why he hasn't succumbed to Geass Runaway despite the constant use of his Geass, which if it ever did go into Runaway Mode would undoubtedly kill him.


	9. Where have I seen you before?

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Where have I seen you before?**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist), 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names) and most recently from the 25/26th June 2012 the 4K Acquisition subsidiary of Konami. Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

* * *

><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden).

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><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – Since the Black Rebellion ended, Villetta Nu has been rewarded with the noble title of Baroness under the condition that she heads up an OSI operation to observe Lelouch Lamperouge a.k.a. Lelouch vi Britannia a.k.a. Zero, the masked terrorist responsible for the Black Rebellion as well as many other incidents that occurred in the past few months. However, as Villetta reflects on the past and how she came to be in her current situation, the disappearance of Princess Euphemia's body during the Black Rebellion three months previously piques her interest; not that she cares all that much for the pink-haired Princess and in fact considers her death the only thing that she actually praises Lelouch for due to her pacifist nature and not getting with Britannia's program. Nevertheless the mysterious circumstance behind her body's disappearance intrigues the new Baroness to no end. Meanwhile, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World, after Abigail is rescued from Amanda, Amanda is brought before Chancellor Sheppard, but before a punishment can be decided, Amanda's father, Roderick Varos gets her off the hook; surprisingly much to Amanda's displeasure. Meanwhile, Euphemia and her friends attempt to move on from the kidnapping, but Amanda approaches them challenging Euphemia to a duel in order to try and remember where she had seen her before. Just what is the connection between Amanda and Euphemia and how is it possible for Amanda to know Euphemia if Euphemia's origins lie in another world and just what does Schneizel plan on doing about it since Varos has noticed Euphemia and unlike his daughter, he clearly remembers her.

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><p><strong>Code Geass World – Tōkyō Settlement, "Area Eleven", Ashford Academy, Secret OSI Headquarters<strong>

Villetta Nu sat alone in the main meeting room of the OSI headquarters that was based underneath Ashford Academy. Sitting at the head of the table, her elbows rested on the table as her hands were firmly clasped in front of her face as she pondered on the events of the past few months and what she had learned from the Emperor. Needless to say, what she had learned had simply boggled her mind and even now, she found herself trying to comprehend it all. It just seemed so unreal to her and yet she knew it to be true. It was after the Black Rebellion that she had heard the name, Geass for the first time from the Emperor and according to him, it had been the power that Zero or Lelouch, as he was called had used on her during the Shinjuku Ghetto Massacre and Jeremiah Gottwald during Suzaku Kururugi's so-called court martial, which in truth had been nothing more than a total farce designed to further the influence of Britannia's Pureblood Faction in "Area Eleven" and in some of the member's eyes; undermine the Imperial Family, but unfortunately for them, Zero, who was the true killer of Prince Clovis had revealed himself and that had been the beginning of the end of the Pureblood Faction; at least in "Area Eleven", something that Villetta vowed vengeance for and not only that, but through an amazing stroke of luck, she also managed to uncover Zero's true identity and discovered that he was not an "Eleven" as initially thought, but a Britannian student and not just any student, but the very same student she had met in Shinjuku and who had apparently vanished along with her Sutherland Knightmare Frame after a brief lapse in her memory.

"And thanks to that, I've now gotten what I've always wanted," she mused to herself with a chuckle, "A hereditary title of nobility that can be passed down to my descendants."

However, as she thought back on how she attained her title, she remembered being brought before the Emperor and how the Emperor did not look at all happy to see her and from the looks of it, it seemed that he had rather grudgingly given her the title of Baroness. Villetta had been rather surprised at that since she expected His Majesty to at the very least acknowledge her achievement in uncovering the identity of the Empire's greatest enemy. However, she had learned that Lelouch Lamperouge was in reality Lelouch vi Britannia, the former Eleventh Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire and upon learning that, the newly appointed Baroness could not help but wonder if perhaps the Emperor had known the truth the entire time and that Zero had been part of some secret plan that the Emperor had in the works. After all, the boy was his son, but the excitement over earning her title quickly overpowered whatever curiosities she had since the Emperor had still given her what she had wanted regardless. So what if she had threatened some secret plan? Apparently, His Majesty's fears had not come to pass otherwise she would have probably been executed. However, in exchange for her title, Villetta had been told that she had to keep an eye on Lelouch and use him as bait to lure out his accomplice, a woman by the name of C.C. and whom Villetta learned had been the woman that had given Lelouch his horrible power. The Emperor had in essence, recruited her to his own personal intelligence agency and she was in charge of the entire operation. Once C.C. was captured, Lelouch would be disposed of and that was that. Villetta agreed with that. After all, she had wanted to pay Lelouch back for all the humiliations he had dealt her and upon learning that he was a rouge Prince of Britannia and that his mother had been Marianne vi Britannia, Villetta's desire for vengeance only grew since she could honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that she totally detested Marianne vi Britannia with a burning passion and looked forward to doing away with her legacy.

"That bitch… she ruined my life," she thought as her face twisted into a rather angry snarl as she remembered what happened in her childhood.

Villetta's family had not been of nobility. Like Marianne, Villetta had been a commoner. However, Marianne had gained favour with Charles zi Britannia back when he was still a prince and even before she married into the Imperial Family, many of the nobles had held her in contempt simply for surpassing them. Marianne was a far better soldier than many of the nobles and she did enjoy rubbing this fact in their faces. Naturally, the nobility did not take too kindly to being shown up by a commoner since many of them considered commoners inferior to them and here Marianne was proving them wrong. However, the nobility did not express their feelings for Marianne openly and mostly hid behind masks of chivalry and politeness. However, some nobles eventually dropped their charades of kindness towards Marianne and told them how they thought of her face. Unfortunately for them, not long afterwards, they and their entire families ended up dying in fires that destroyed their entire estates. It was clear that Marianne had somehow been involved as all the families that had died had someone who had let Marianne know how they really felt about her not long… sometimes even hours before hand.

That was where Villetta and her family came in. Villetta had only been twelve-years-old at the time. Her father had been a police detective investigating one of those mysterious fires that had occurred on a noble family's estate. Marianne was eleven years older than her and so had been twenty-three at the time and she had not long given birth to her second child, Nunnally vi Britannia. Her father had been investigating a recent fire that had occurred at the estate of a Lois P. Hamilton in which Lois and his entire family had perished and the entire estate had been raised to the ground. He had done some background checking and found that on the afternoon of the day of the fire, Lois had waltzed right up to Marianne and insulted her to her face and told her how she was a disease to society and that her children were barbarians. However, looking back through similar cases, Villetta's father had discovered that each family that had perished in one of those fires had someone who had insulted Marianne. It was circumstantial and definitely not enough evidence to charge her, but Villetta's father was not deterred. Through painstaking investigative work, he had been able to prove that at least the Hamilton fire was not an accident and had been deliberate and he did seem to be on to something, but then just when it seemed that he was making progress, Marianne herself had paid him a visit.

Villetta cringed as she remembered the events of that horrible day. She had just gotten home from a friend's house and she had been shocked to discover Empress Marianne standing over the bodies of her parents with a gun in her hand and blood-stained clothes. However, it had been Marianne's expression that had haunted Villetta the most. She had seen Marianne on television before and she always seemed to have a rather kind, caring and loving smile on her face. She had still adorned that same smile when Villetta had seen her standing over her parents' bodies and what shocked Villetta even more was that Marianne had walked over to Villetta's ten-year-old brother who was still alive and cowering in the far corner of the living room and stood over his frightened form before raising the gun and practically shoved it into his face before firing and afterwards, Marianne downright admitting that she had been the one who had killed all those nobles and had killed Villetta's family because her father had been getting too close to the truth. However, she also admitted that she had killed Villetta's mother and brother just for the sport of it and told Villetta that she was only sparing her in order to placate her conscience. It had left Villetta thoroughly devastated and because she was only just a child at the time, she had known, even back then that no one would believe her if she told them that Empress Marianne, a woman that until then Villetta had actually looked up to had murdered her family, so she had feigned amnesia and spent a year in a psychiatric hospital, all the while plotting her revenge against her former idol.

"That smile," Villetta cursed, briefly coming back to reality, "That goddamn smile."

She remembered Marianne's smile; the same one she always seemed to wear. It had been a deceptively sweet and caring smile, but looking into the Empress's eyes, Villetta remembered seeing nothing other than malice, hate and sadistic glee; especially when she murdered her brother. She had murdered a child and she had not shown even the slightest hint of remorse or compassion and seemed to get a thrill out of it. That had been Marianne's true nature. Villetta remembered discovering that fact later on. Apparently her aura of sweetness and purity had been nothing more than a façade. The real Marianne vi Britannia was nothing more than a cold, heartless, selfish and cruel monster of a woman. Even the nobles had grown to fear her. Villetta knew that they knew that Marianne had murdered all those who dared voice their true opinions of her, but they could not prove it and she had the Emperor's protection and so Villetta had joined the military in the hope that she would someday earn a position that would get her close to Marianne so she could kill her and avenge her family.

Eventually she when she was eighteen, she had earned the noble title of Knight through extraordinary and substantial military service to the Empire. However, unlike regular noble titles, the title of Knight was not a hereditary title and would not be passed down to Villetta's children, but knights normally went on to become closely associated with regular nobles; normally becoming aides or bodyguards to them and Villetta came into the Gottwald Family's service and she had been ecstatic to discover that Jeremiah, the first son of the Gottwald Family and future Margrave was in Marianne's service and she had hoped to exploit that so she could get close enough to Marianne in order to kill her, but a year later, someone had apparently beaten Villetta to the punch and done away with Marianne, though Villetta had to admit that she felt a mixture of relief and frustration; relief in that the woman she had been targeting all that time was finally dead and frustration in the fact that it was not her that had done the killing herself. Even to this day, the truth behind what had happened was not known, but eventually, Villetta had decided that it did not matter since there was nothing that could be done about it now and had decided to work towards earning a hereditary title of nobility and she had stayed with Jeremiah since he had promised to help her and both had joined the Pureblood Faction. However, Jeremiah had decided to go to "Area Eleven" after it had been established because it was where the Emperor had send Marianne's two children, Lelouch and Nunnally.

"You were a fool to confront your father," Villetta mused with a sadistic smirk on her face as she taunted the former prince, "You have no one to blame but yourself. Had you not confronted His Majesty, you wouldn't be in this mess. You brought it all on yourself."

That much was true. If she was honest with herself then she could honestly say that she despised Marianne's children just as much as she despised Marianne herself; if for nothing else; she despised them for being Marianne's children. She had learned of Lelouch's outburst and his and his sister's subsequent exile to Japan and in truth, Villetta found herself being rather unsympathetic towards them. It was not hard for her to realise that Lelouch had donned the mask of Zero and started his rebellion in order to take his revenge against the Empire that he probably believed abandoned him, but in Villetta's mind, Lelouch had deserved it and had brought it all on himself. He should not have confronted his father over his lack of action over his mother's death. Even when she was a child, Villetta was a firm believer in Britannia's Social Darwinist rhetoric. The strong survived and the weak were crushed. That's how the world was and Lelouch was a fool to try and change it. In essence, Lelouch was responsible was his own misfortunate, though she knew that she was probably just being bias on account of Lelouch being her former nemesis's son.

She remembered that she had first met Lelouch in the Shinjuku Ghetto before the apparent massacre that Prince Clovis ordered. She had just blown her way into a warehouse and found at least nine members of Prince Clovis's Royal Guard lying dead and Lelouch had been standing over them with an apparent look of indifference and she remembered after threatening him with some warning shots from her Sutherland's assault rifle how he had told her to come out in a tone that told her that he was expecting her to comply without question and when she had refused, she remembered how Lelouch had told her that he was the son of a Duke and requested her protection. Needless to say, Villetta had bought it. She had to hand it to Lelouch; he really knew how to bluff his way out of a tricky situation. Of course, the incident also taught her that Lelouch's Geass needed direct eye contact to work. He had obviously used his Geass while she was still in her Sutherland, which was why he had spoken to her in the way that he did and when that did not work, he must have realised that limitation and told her that he was a Duke's son to explain his behaviour since there were quite a few nobles that did expect everyone else to bow down and obey them without question and Villetta, fearing that she would have gotten in trouble had "Alan Spacer" gotten hurt complied, though she did suspect that something was off and had decided to play along until she could prove it. Unfortunately, she had played right into Lelouch's hands and once she had exited her Sutherland, Lelouch had used his Geass on her and the next thing she remembered was that she was alone in the warehouse and her Sutherland was nowhere to be found and surprisingly, all the dead bodies that had been littering the floor had also gone missing.

"Big mistake, leaving me alive," she thought rather smugly, "You had a perfect opportunity to do away with me and you blew it."

She supposed that Lelouch decided her unimportant and believed that some "Elevens" would come across her and do the job for him since she knew that if she had been found without a Knightmare, the ghetto's residents would have undoubtedly killed her, but luckily for her, she had managed to avoid running into "Elevens". In any case, that incident had cost Prince Clovis his life and the prospect of capitalising off the Prince's death and using it to the Purebloods' advantage had caused her to momentarily forget about the mysterious student that had somehow vanished along with her Sutherland for the time being and she had been all for Jeremiah's idea of stitching up Suzaku Kururugi for the murder; eager to expand the Pureblood Faction's power in "Area Eleven" and if all had gone as they had hoped then maybe Jeremiah's position as Interim Viceroy could become permanent.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be as Zero, Prince Clovis's real murderer had gate-crashed Suzaku's court martial and announced his guilt in what appeared to be a suicidal fashion, but then after Zero had mentioned the word, Orange to Jeremiah, Jeremiah seemed to have a change of heart and released Suzaku and Villetta remembered how she and Kewell Soresi had tried to stop them, knowing that if they did not at least try to salvage the situation then the Purebloods would be finished since she was sure that an investigation would have been ordered into how the Purebloods had made such a horrible mistake and many may come to develop the notion that the Purebloods had been deliberately seeking to undermine the Imperial Family and such a thing would have been considered treason. However, unfortunately Jeremiah had apparently gone berserk and aided in Zero's escape, something that he later claimed he could not remember and remembering her own experience in Shinjuku, she found herself actually believing Jeremiah and even came to his aid when Kewell and three others had attempted to instigate a mutiny and surprisingly enough, Suzaku Kururugi, the very person Jeremiah had been planning on making the fall guy for Prince Clovis's murder also helped out, though Villetta later discovered that Suzaku had been so stupid that he never had caught on to the fact that he was just a scapegoat and that the Purebloods had known that he was innocent the entire time.

"What an idiot," Villetta scoffed, "I wonder if he's on medication and his stupidity is just a side-effect of his medication. I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if His Majesty had some ulterior motive in granting him the title, Knight of Seven."

True, Villetta had nothing against Suzaku Kururugi as a person, but at the end of the day he was still an "Eleven" and she honestly could not for the life of her understand why His Majesty, the Emperor had rewarded him as he did. Sure Suzaku was the one who ultimately captured Zero and his ascension to the Knights of the Round had been a reward for doing so, but the question was, why? Suzaku was not a Britannian. In fact, what the Emperor did went against everything that Britannia stood for. Sure Suzaku had the skills and necessary and was a pretty good pilot in a Knightmare Frame and Villetta admitted that she had come to grudgingly respect him for his skills and service to the Empire since Suzaku had indeed proven his loyalty to Britannia when he captured Zero, but he was still an "Eleven". The main reason the Purebloods had used him as a scapegoat was because he was an Honorary Britannian as well as the son of Japan's last acting Prime Minister, Genbu Kururugi and the Purebloods had been aiming to abolish the Honorary Britannian system altogether. When Prince Clovis was murdered, they had seized the opportunity. If they could convince the people that the culprit was an Honorary Britannian then they would have their excuse to shut down the practice of granting "Elevens" Honorary status. They believed that the people were so close-minded that they would believe anything and Suzaku had been chosen because of his connection to his father and that it gave him a motive and the people would be none the wiser. This was despite knowing that Prince Clovis hated "Elevens" and would not have allowed even the most trusted Honorary Britannians within a sixty-foot radius of his person. However, the people would be too caught up in their anger and grief to care.

However, after the whole Zero fiasco and Kewell's attempted mutiny, Jeremiah had been the one to take the fall as Princess Cornelia's Knight of Honour, Gilbert G.P. Guilford had demoted him to the rank of ordinary Knightmare Frame pilot and the Purebloods as a whole had been reassigned to the rear defences during field operations and Villetta remembered how Jeremiah had become rather obsessed with redeeming himself and regaining his honour and it certainly did not help that Kewell and the others took verbal shots at him and even taunted him. In fact, Jeremiah's obsession had driven him insane as Villetta remembered that during the battle at Narita where the Japan Liberation Front's main base was when that new Red Knightmare appeared that when it had grasped Jeremiah's Sutherland's and caused it to… bubble up for lack of a better term and explode, that Jeremiah had been reduced to a raving lunatic. She remembered hearing Jeremiah's screams of how Zero was so close and how he was cursing his auto-eject system for activating either oblivious to or not caring about the fact that his life literality just seconds away from ending. However, unfortunately, Jeremiah was listed among the list of casualties and with Jeremiah's apparent death, Villetta believed that her hopes of attaining a title of nobility had gone down the tubes. However, fortunately for her, in the aftermath of the battle when civilians had come to identity the bodies of their loved ones who had gotten caught up in the initial landslide that had been caused by the Black Knights, she had noticed a photograph of Lelouch and even though she could not clearly remember his face from Shinjuku, she had known that he had come from Ashford Academy and the boy in the picture did look familiar. She remembered that the girl who owned the photograph, Shirley Fenette and her mother had both come to see if Joseph Fenette, Shirley's father was among the dead, which he was.

However, not long afterwards, Villetta had approached Shirley while she was still grieving over her father and told her that Lelouch could be involved with the Black Knights, though she never thought in a million years that he would be Zero. She had initially assumed that he had just been an accomplice and nothing more and she remembered how she had Shirley follow Lelouch to Port Yokosuka where the remnants of the Japan Liberation Front had taken refuge in a Sakuradite tanker and after the initial battle between Cornelia's forces and the Black Knights, Zero had been forced to eject and had been rendered unconscious and Villetta remembered how both she and Shirley had found him, but apparently Shirley had turned on her and shot her, giving her a bad case of amnesia and she had ended up in the hands of a high ranking member of the Black Knights, an "Eleven" whom she learned was named Kaname Ōgi. However, she found that she had no ill-feelings towards the orangette despite that.

"I suppose it's what I get for taking advantage of her," she mused with a chuckle.

She supposed that that much was true. After all, she had taken advantage of the girl by going to her with the information about Lelouch while she was still trying to come to terms with her father's death. It was clear looking into Shirley's eyes that night that the orangette clearly had no idea what to think when she realised that the boy she had had a crush on had been the one responsible for her father's death. Shirley clearly had no idea what she was doing when she had shot her and it was clear that she had probably gone into denial and that the part of her that had loved Lelouch had won out in her internal struggle. However, despite this, Villetta really had no remorse whatsoever in taking advantage of Shirley's depression when she was still grieving over her father and she could honestly admit that she would do it again. She believed that Shirley should have been able to put her grief to the back of her mind and sucked it up and the fact that she had not done so made her weak and according to Social Darwinism, the strong survived at the expense of the weak and that the weak were used by the strong to be strong. The world was one big struggle where people used and discarded one another all the time. That was what Villetta believed and Shirley had been weak since she had not come to accept the fact that her father was dead, though if Villetta was being completely honest with herself, they she would have realised that part of her took sadistic glee in using the traumatised girl in the manner that she did. Villetta had in essence, gotten a kick out of it, though she had done it in essence to further her own goals in attaining a noble title. If Shirley had ended up traumatised because of it, then it had been a necessary sacrifice… at least that's what she told herself in order to hide from the truth.

In any case, afterwards, she ended up with Kaname Ōgi who had found her at Port Yokosuka the following day, though she had experienced a bad case of amnesia, though she remembered how Ōgi quizzed her on Zero's true identity and how he had been planning on using Refrain to get her to talk, but had apparently backed out of it and let her live with him and much to her displeasure, they had both gotten rather close and Villetta remembered how in her amnesic state that she started cooking for him and helping out round his apartment and when Princess Euphemia had announced her intentions to start the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan, Villetta had even told Ōgi that she would be happy to adopt the title of an "Eleven" and live happily with him and she even remembered the name that he had given her; Chigusa, a Japanese name and it was obvious to Villetta that he had named her that because he did not know who she really was and was looking for a name to address her by so it would not sound stupid or like he was insulting her.

"I can't believe how foolish I was," she thought to herself as her face twisted into an expression of disgust as she remembered how accepting of the situation she had been while suffering from her amnesia, "I don't think I'll ever be able to wash the shame away."

Thinking back, she could not help but feel absolutely repulsed and reviled of how she had forgotten her true self. She was Villetta Nu, a good patriotic Britannian and Knight of Britannia. She did not mingle with "Numbers". All men were not equal, that was the Emperor's words. Equality was evil and blasphemous. It went against everything Britannia stood for and here she was; not only living with an "Eleven", but she had actually considered becoming one herself. Thinking about it made her want to throw up. She was not sure exactly how her memories returned since it seemed to happen out of the blue, but after Princess Euphemia's apparent massacre and the uprisings that followed, some angry "Elevens" had noticed her in Ōgi's apartment and broke in, accusing her of being a spy and she only just barely managed to escape and then, as if by magic, her memories returned and she had sought out Ōgi, whom she found at Ashford Academy and after he had dismissed his associates, she had shot him and with Zero abandoning the rebellion for some reason, everything started to fall apart for the Black Knights.

However, thinking back to Ōgi, a small part of her had to wonder if her initial beliefs about "Elevens" had been accurate. After all, she had assumed that they were all just angry barbaric heathens; furious over having their home invaded and being demoted to sub-human status in their own country. Villetta indeed understood this and yet, like many Britannians, she had deluded herself in believing that Britannia had every right to do so because it was so powerful and that Britannia was "justifying its right to survive" in doing so. She had initially believed that they would have raped and killed her if given the opportunity and yet Ōgi had done neither. He had found her after Shirley had shot her and instead of leaving her for dead, he had taken her in and nursed her back to health like the Good Samaritan. A very small part of her really started to wonder if perhaps her beliefs were really as justified as Britannia claimed they were, but unfortunately she just scoffed it off, remembering Ōgi's comments about Zero, him threatening to drug her with Refrain and his comment about how she had regain her memories after she shot him before he lost consciousness convinced her that he probably had some ulterior motive in mind and it was not too much of a stretch to realise that Ōgi had been meaning to interrogate her on Zero's true identity, which told her that Zero hid his face from even his closest subordinates, but considering that he was really Britannian and not an "Eleven", that was pretty understandable. After all, given that the majority of the Black Knights were "Elevens", they would probably find it pretty hard to trust Lelouch due to the fact that he was a Britannian alone and that was to say nothing of his real identity as a Britannian Prince.

"I guess the massacre at the SAZ really was a godsend," Villetta mused to herself with a smug looking smirk.

Remembering Princess Euphemia and her SAZ idea, Villetta could honestly say that given her beliefs on non-Britannians as a whole, she had absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for Euphemia's fate and actually found herself praising Lelouch for doing away with her. The Specially Administrated Zone went against everything Britannia stood for and Villetta feared that had it succeeded, then Britannia as a whole would undoubtedly be labelled as a hypocritical nation. Princess Euphemia was a stain on the Britannian Imperial Family with her pacifist nature. Sure Villetta knew that there were Britannians who opposed the Social Darwinism rhetoric that the Emperor preached and actually sympathised with the "Numbers", which Villetta detested with a passion, but they had been nothing to worry about. The majority of them had been just commoners with no means of furthering their views. However, Euphemia was a member of the Imperial Family and for a member of the Imperial Family to have such views… such a thing was unthinkable and horrifying. Villetta knew that Euphemia had infuriated an awful lot of nobles with her idea and many had been looking to discredit her. In essence, Euphemia had come to be regarded by patriotic Britannians as a disease and they definitely did not shed any tears when Zero murdered her. There was speculation going about that Zero had somehow been involved in the massacre; simply due to the fact that he had disappeared with Princess Euphemia before she emerged alone and ordered the massacre and when Zero next appeared, he was unscathed and showed no signs of being in a fight; something that many people missed. However, Villetta knew the truth. She knew that Lelouch had used his Geass on her to discredit her since she knew that Euphemia had effectively backed him into a no-win situation and she did see the potential benefits of the SAZ, but her pride as a Britannian would not let her accept it. Killing Euphemia was the only thing that Villetta had praised Lelouch for. He may have been trying to further his own goals, but he had unwittingly done many people in Britannia a huge favour in eliminating the pink-haired princess.

"But then her body mysteriously vanished from Prince Schneizel's flagship," Villetta mused curiously as she thought to the mysterious disappearance of Euphemia's body.

It was a mystery that had even the most well-versed experts in infiltration wracking their brains even to this day. Villetta had first heard about the disappearance through gossip, but then upon being recruited to the OSI, she had been made privy to the truth. Apparently, during the Black Rebellion, the surveillance camera in Euphemia's room had experienced a technical fault of some kind, but when it apparently sorted itself out, Euphemia's dead body was gone and the doctor and nurse that had seen to her were both lying on the floor unconscious. However, what was peculiar was that neither of them had any marks on their bodies to indicate a fight or a struggle and when they both awoke hours later, they were both feeling fine, but apparently had no memories of what happened in the room. What made it even more strange was that nothing had been seen approaching or leaving the Avalon in all the time it had been up in the air. After the body had gone missing, the Avalon's security team had painstakingly done multiple sweeps of the entire ship, but found absolutely nothing. The body snatcher and the body itself had both apparently vanished into thin air, though the doctor and nurse had clearly walked in on the body snatcher, but neither had any memories of the event.

"Very strange," Villetta thought to herself with a shudder, "I definitely wouldn't want to meet whoever could pull that off on a dark night."

Theories about what had happened ran all over the place. However, Villetta knew that they were all baseless. Upon hearing about Geass, she considered the possibility that a Geass user was involved, but on what she had heard from the Emperor about how Geass was confined to affecting the mind, she came to dismiss that theory. Sure, Geass could account for the doctor and nurse, but not for how the body snatcher managed to sneak on board the Avalon and escape completely unnoticed. The boy, Rolo; a member of the OSI that she was working with and who had a Geass of his own that had the ability to freeze a person's perception of time. However, even a Geass like that had its flaws. Even if the crew of the Avalon were frozen, the moment the person walked in range of a surveillance camera, the camera would have picked up their movements and relayed them to the monitor and the tape could be played back, exposing them. Electronic equipment was immune to the effects of Geass, so Geass could not have accounted for the body snatcher's methods. Even if they had stowed away on board while the Avalon had been on the ground, Villetta knew that escape would have been impossible without causing a ruckus. The only explanation she could think of was that it was all just one big joke and the entire crew of the Avalon had been in on it, but she knew that that was not the case.

"But just what would anyone want with a dead body?" Villetta asked herself, "It doesn't make any sense."

That much was certain. Why would anyone want to steal a dead body and Villetta knew that Euphemia had been confirmed dead. She remembered hearing from a doctor on how after she died, Suzaku Kururugi, whom had become her Knight of Honour had completely broken down and had to be dragged away from her while they went to work on her and she also remembered how after returning to the Avalon with Lelouch and hearing how Euphemia's body had gone missing, how he had practically thrashed the doctor to within an inch of his life; demanding an explanation and the doctor unfortunately had none, so Suzaku had continued to beat on him; though Villetta guessed that he was just venting his rage and clearly did not care whether he had had an explanation or not. That was more proof that it had not been a sick joke that everyone was in on because if it had have been, Villetta was sure that the doctor would have spilled his guts to Suzaku if what she had heard about how brutal the beating was true.

Nevertheless regardless of what happened, the Emperor had declared that Euphemia was solely responsible for the massacre and had been acting on her own and had been arrested and executed by the Britannian military. However, apparently the disappearance of her body had caused him to become rather paranoid over the possibility that she could turn up alive, which Villetta scoffed at, knowing that even if Euphemia was somehow still alive, it would be suicidal for her to show her face in public due to the anger and revulsion many people still felt over the massacre at the SAZ. However, the Emperor had issued the order to all OSI operatives that should they come across Euphemia and she was still alive, then they were to kill her. Villetta put his paranoia down to the fact that he did not have a body to back up his declaration and feared it being found elsewhere, which would inevitably disprove his declaration and could potentially bring him unwanted attention. The only reason Villetta could think of why anyone would show a continued interest in Euphemia after she had been shot was to make sure that she was really dead. She could not think of any reason why they would steal the body. They could have snuck on board and shot her to be sure that she was dead.

"Not that it matters since I could care less about that revolting bitch," Villetta thought, "Princess Cornelia may have been a patriotic Britannian, but she was weak when it came to her sister."

That much, she felt was true. Despite Princess Cornelia's hatred of "Numbers", Villetta had felt that she had been too soft when it came to her sister. Surely Cornelia must have known about her sister's "treacherous" ideals and yet, she had done nothing about it. Even when she had chosen Suzaku Kururugi as her Knight of Honour; an "Eleven", Villetta had been surprised that Cornelia did not do anything to reprimand her sister. In Villetta's mind, what Euphemia had done was an insult to the Holy Britannian Empire. "Numbers" had no place the Empire other than to be looked down and trodden on. It angered Villetta just thinking about it. How could Princess Cornelia just let that happen and how could she possibly have agreed to the SAZ in the first place? She just could not understand it. However, she did know that Cornelia practically loved her little sister and Euphemia was the only one who could make her smile, so Villetta figured that Cornelia did not have what it took to act against her sister. However, she had been suffering from amnesia and held up at Ōgi's during that time and so, she had no idea what was really going on since she had not been made privy to all the details since she recovered her memories.

Anyway, moving on and remembering learning of Lelouch's true identity had been a shock to say the least. Learning that the boy she had been trying to apprehend all this time had been the son of the woman who had murdered her family had been shocking to say the least and suddenly she felt as if Marianne had been mocking her from beyond the grave. Closing her eyes, Villetta had been assaulted with an image of Marianne's face, which still had that deceptively pure smile permanently etched on her face staring at her mockingly. It was as if Marianne was using her son to continue and ruin her life. To her Lelouch was nothing more than an extension of his mother. Marianne had murdered her family and learning that her son had become a major headache for her, she had come to believe that Marianne was not through with her and was laughing at her from beyond the grave at her misfortune.

"Unfortunately for you, the tables have turned in my favour," she thought as she looked up with a smug look on her face, as if trying to taunt her old nemesis and former idol.

That much was true, she believed. The Emperor, who had a Geass of his own and suppressed Lelouch's real memories and had returned him to "Area Eleven" under her watchful eye. Villetta had been told that he had an accomplice that the Emperor was keen to capture and that was their mission; to use Lelouch as bait to lure C.C. out and once she was captured, Lelouch would be disposed of and that suited Villetta perfectly. She would have the last laugh against Marianne. Since learning of Lelouch's status as a Britannian Prince, all Villetta could see was Marianne. Everything that occurred that lead to her misfortunate had all been Marianne working from beyond the grave. Lelouch as an individual no longer mattered to her. All she cared about was Lelouch being Marianne's son.

For her mission, she was posing as a PE teacher at Ashford Academy and was head of the Swim Club; a club that Shirley Fenette was a member of and like Lelouch, Shirley, Milly and Rivalz all had their memories suppressed and rewritten as well because they knew that Lelouch had had a sister; whom Villetta vowed to take down once Lelouch was out of the way and could potentially ruin the mission and working with her was a boy known only as Rolo, who also had a Geass and who was posing as Lelouch's younger brother. However, Villetta was very weary and distrustful of the boy; not because of the possibility of him siding with Lelouch, but because of his Geass and his homicidal tendencies. Villetta had been told about Geass. She had been told that each individual Geass was unique and that it normally depended on the person and what they desired. No two Geasses had the same power. However, on the first day of the mission, Villetta remembered how some of her OSI colleagues warned her to be careful of Rolo and informed her that he also occasionally killed his colleagues, including his superiors if they rubbed him the wrong way and Villetta remembered witnessing one such incident in which Rolo accidentally bumped into one of his colleagues and apologised, but the man had ignored him and grumbled as he walked off. It was then that Villetta remembered seeing Rolo's Geass in action for the first time when one minute she saw the man Rolo had bumped into walking away and then as if by magic, the man was suddenly lying on the floor was a gunshot wound in his stomach and Rolo was standing over and glaring down at him and his excuse for killing him was along the lines of the man badmouthing him and she also remembered one time when two students had accidentally come across their secret base and Rolo killed them without hesitation and Villetta remembered when she chided him for it that he responded by giving her a carefully concealed threat that she would get the same treatment if she annoyed him and it was enough for her to back down as she got the message.

According to the Emperor, Rolo was a trained assassin who had been trained since he was six-years-old and that had horrified Villetta. Rolo was the best assassin the OSI had, responsible for the death of William H. Helmsley of the Senate when he stood in opposition to demoting "Area Eight" to a Correctional Area and he also murdered people in large crowds and in front of people using his Geass to conceal his involvement and Rolo was rather indifferent to the whole thing. He did not care much for the fact that he was a killer and he definitely did not care for the people he killed. Whenever he was given a mission, he carried it out and that was that. He did not ask questions and just did his job. He was like a mindless drone just carrying out what he was told to do and it disgusted Villetta to no end. How could anyone be so cruel as to do that to a child and brainwash them into a mindless assassin? It was clear to Villetta that Rolo had become so accustomed to killing people that he had come to develop the notion that killing was the best way to solve everyone's problems. If he had a problem with someone, he just killed them and that was that and since learning this, Villetta was trying her absolute best to remain on his good side since she knew that the moment she entered Rolo's bad books, then as far as he was concerned, her life was forfeit.

However, deciding to think about something else to get her mind off Rolo, Villetta remembered Shirley, Milly and Rivalz, the three members of the student council that were sent back along with Lelouch and who also had their memories suppressed. As far as Villetta was concerned, it was necessary since they knew things that could potentially jeopardise their mission. She knew that effectively, it felt as if they were also being punished for Lelouch's transgressions despite the fact they were innocent, but that did not matter to Villetta in the slightest. It was necessary, though Villetta again found a part of her taking sadistic pleasure in their predicament. Once Lelouch was out of the way, Villetta was planning on doing away with the three of them as well just for good measure since should their memories return, it could cause their whole mission to unravel and bring the OSI unwanted attention as well as the fact that Villetta herself had used a recently bereaved girl for her own ends taking advantage of her depressed state. Maybe that was why Villetta did not have any animosity towards Shirley despite having shot her and unwittingly causing her to end up with Ōgi. Villetta was already planning on killing her anyway and to "be kind" to Shirley's mother, a woman whom she learned went by the name, Anita, she would also kill her as well to spare her the grieve of losing her daughter as well as her husband and she would also kill the entire Ashford Family for their past association with Marianne and once that was done, she would concentrate on finding a way to discredit Nunnally and have her executed just because she was Marianne's daughter and once Nunnally was dead, Villetta could rest easy knowing that she had eradicated Marianne's legacy in its entirety off the face of the Earth.

"Pity, Princess Nunnally was innocent and oblivious to her brother's actions," she thought as a sadistic smile crept onto her face, "Nothing personal, Nunnally, but unfortunately for you, you happen to have been born to the wrong woman."

* * *

><p><strong>Pendragon, Britannian Homeland, Britannian Royale Hotel, Ten years earlier<strong>

_Six-year-old Euphemia li Britannia stood in the main lobby of the Britannian Royale Hotel, the most expensive and most luxurious hotel in the capital. She was currently waiting her big sister and half-brother, Schneizel as they held talks in one of the hotel's many conference rooms with a very important businessman who had been seeking funding for various projects he had been working on. Not that Euphemia particularly had any clue as to the importance of such talks. After all, she was just a child with limited understanding as to such important adult things. Cornelia and Schneizel may both be seventeen, but they both had already proven themselves wise beyond their years and Cornelia was already an outstanding soldier in the Britannian Military and Schneizel had recently become Prime Minister after he used his knowledge in tactics and military strategy to rescue hostages in a hostage situation in the Toronto Settlement in "Area Two" to the north of the Britannian homeland. Some pro-equality faction had gate-crashed a meeting between two business companies to discuss a possible merger between their two companies and had held the delegates to ransom, threatening to kill them if their demands were not met in seventy-two hours. Schneizel had not only coordinated the military's rescue attempt, but he also managed to do so and kill all members of the pro-equality faction without sacrificing a single hostage, which had impressed the Emperor and he had been rewarded with the position of Prime Minister as a result. However Euphemia could barely understand it. All she knew was that Schneizel had done a good thing and had been given a treat._

_Anyway, the sound of arguing coming from outside suddenly grabbed her attention and curious to see what was going on, the young pinkette walked towards the doors and from the sounds of the voices, they were not adults arguing over grown up stuff. They sounded like children insulting one another and her eyes widened as she recognised one voice._

"_Whadda ya mean we're not supposed to be here?" the voice of Lelouch vi Britannia demanded, "We're Prince and Princess."_

"_Our mommies say that you're illegitimate, whatever that means," a voice that Euphemia did not recognise responded, "Your mommy's not supposed to be married to the Emperor. She's a thief and a harlot."_

"_What's a harlot?" another voice that Euphemia did not recognise asked._

"_I dunno," the first voice said, "But from the way mommy and daddy were talking, it's a bad thing."_

"_You leave our mother alone," Euphemia heard Lelouch say in a threatening tone and it was then that she exited the building and saw Lelouch with Nunnally cowering behind him and clinging to his leg as she peeked out before quickly retreating back behind him._

_Confronting them were three boys who were obviously children of nobles that hated Marianne. Euphemia did not know why many nobles hated Marianne. Marianne was a kind and caring woman who was kind and loving to everyone she met, so she just could not understand why many people hated her so much. What did Marianne do to earn such hatred? Euphemia could just barely grasp the concept of social class and she knew that Marianne was a commoner, but she did not really understand what all the fuss was about. So what if Marianne was a commoner, what was the big deal? It was possible for commoners to move up on the social ladder. Her mother had once told her a story of how a woman born on the streets had risen up and attained the rank of Duchess through hard work and determination._

_Anyway, before Euphemia could move in and stand up for her half-siblings, a girl suddenly appeared from behind her and marched right between Lelouch and the three opposing boys and gave them a rather nasty glare._

"_Just who the heck do you think you are?" she demanded as she raised her hand and viciously slapped the lead boy in the cheek._

_The girl had shoulder length sky blue hair and bright sparkling blue eyes. She wore bright blue and white sandals on her feet and a white one-piece, short-sleeved dress with blue stripes running both vertically and horizontally causing the white in the dress to appear as squares. The sleeves run down till halfway between her shoulders and elbows and the skirt ran down to just above her knees._

"_And what's it to you, girlie?" the lead boy said after recovering from her attack as he glared at her._

"_I don't like that you're picking on this boy and his sister," the girl replied with fury in her voice, "Just leave them alone."_

_Lelouch looked on in surprise, not knowing who this girl was or why she had decided to stand up for him and Nunnally. However, he did feel that his pride had taken a blow. He did not need this girl's help in dealing with those three boys and glared at her from behind. He was perfectly capable of handling himself and definitely did not need help; especially from a girl. He did not know why, but getting help from a girl seemed to anger him more than usual. Perhaps it was because it was a girl and not a boy that was standing up for him that was making him even more angry than normal. However, before he could reprimand her, the lead boy suddenly lunged towards the girl and threw out his fist, which connected with her face, shocking everyone present; including the boy's two cohorts._

_The girl stumbled backwards and then slipped and fell on her butt and feeling the pain to her face, she glared up at the boy, who had a smug look on his face and started sniffling as it was clear she was trying not to cry, but after a few seconds, the waterworks started to flow and she let out a loud scream._

"_Ha, ha, ha, that'll teach ya," the boy boasted as he folded his arms across his chest and stared down at her with a cruel smile, "What's wrong, are you surprised? Thought I wouldn't hit ya because you were a girl?"_

_The girl glared up at the boy through the tears that blurred her vision._

"_Let that be a lesson to ya; don't get involved in something that ain't yer business," he concluded._

"_Are you alright?" Nunnally asked as she went over to the girl._

_Lelouch look at the girl and then at the leader of the group that had confront him and Nunnally._

"_You'd actually hit a girl?" he said with a disgusted snort, "Yeah, how very noble-like; the actions of a true coward."_

"_You take that back, you little rat!" the boy screamed as he lunged at him, ready to slam his fist into his face, but it was then that Euphemia had decided that she had seen enough and she rushed over and slammed her own fist right in the side of his face, causing him to stumble and then slip before falling to the ground._

"_That's enough out of you," she said as she glared down at the boy who then looked up at her and started to cry._

"_You'll regret this, you stinkin' traitor…" the boy said as he picked himself up, glaring furiously at her, "Yer no princess of Britannia… Princesses wouldn't side with the children of street filth."_

_However, Euphemia turned her attention to the girl he had punched, choosing to ignore him and helped Nunnally bring the girl to her feet. _

"_Are you okay?" she asked the girl, looking at her in concern, "Are you hurt?"_

"_I… I'm alright," the girl sniffed as she wiped the tears from her eyes, "Thanks."_

"_Who are you?" Lelouch inquired with a glare, still not happy that she had come to his aid._

"_Lelouch, hush!" Euphemia scolded as she shot her half-brother a glare, "You really should be more grateful considering that she tried to help you and Nunnally out."_

"_I never asked for her help," Lelouch grumbled incoherently as he turned to look away from the girl._

"_What's his problem?" the blue-haired girl asked in shock._

"_Ignore him," Euphemia said, shaking her head, "He's probably just all huffy that a girl came to his aid."_

"_Humph!" Lelouch snorted, having overheard what his half-sister had said._

"_Be nice, Big Brother, she was only trying to help," Nunnally added as she gave her brother a glare of her own._

_Lelouch turned and looked towards Nunnally in surprise for a moment and then looked unsure of himself for a moment and then just shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh._

"_Oh, alright," he said as he turned towards the girl, "I'm sorry."_

_However, he did not sound like he meant it, earning a glare from the girls present._

"_What?" he said in annoyance, "I said I was sorry, didn't I?"_

"_Never mind," Euphemia said, shaking her head with a sigh, "I guess that's as much as we'll get out of him."_

"_I suppose," the girl said with a nod of agreement._

"_Anyway, what's your name?" Nunnally asked curiously, "Mine's Nunnally."_

"_And I'm her half-sister, Euphemia," Euphemia said before turning to glare at Lelouch who was busy sulking at being ganged up on, "And that guy over there is our brother… well my half-brother and Nunnally's brother, Lelouch."_

_The girl then gave a rather hesitant glance in Lelouch's direction and Lelouch just stared at her in surprise for a moment before quickly turning his head away from her with a rather rude snort._

"_Fine, be that way," she thought to herself before turning her attention back to Euphemia and Nunnally._

"_And I'm Amanda, Amanda Varos," the girl said as she held out her hand and Euphemia took it and shook it and Nunnally did the same._

"_Oh, Amanda, there you are," a new male voice came from behind them, causing everyone to turn to see Cornelia, Schneizel and Marianne standing along with a man that Euphemia, Nunnally and Lelouch did not know and whom they guessed was Amanda's father and beside him was another girl who looked a few years older than Amanda glowering right at her, making it clear that she did not like her and from the glare that she was getting in return, it was also clear that Amanda considered the feeling mutual._

_The man had neatly combed short white hair and his irises where transparent and the blood vessels were visible giving his eyes a rather distinct shade of pink, making it clear that he was an albino. He wore what could only be described as an inverted business suit consisting of white shoes, white trousers, a grey shirt, a white tie and a white jacket. The cuffs of his jacket's sleeves also had three buttons running vertically upwards towards his shoulders. _

"_Now, now, Marcella, that's no way to greet your sister, now is it?" the man scolded as he stared down at the girl standing beside him._

"_She's not my sister," the girl, Marcella declared aloud as she shot the bluenette a glare, causing Nunnally and Euphemia to gasp in shock, but before either of them could recover, she turned to fix a glare on them both._

_Marcella was nine-years-old and had blonde hair that went down to the part of her back where her chest ended at the front and she also had the same eye colour at Amanda, but unlike Amanda's eyes, Marcella's eyes were cruel, mean and rather cold. There was a lot of anger and grief hidden in their depths. She wore a pair of white sandals and the same sort of dress that Amanda wore; only the stripes in the dress were bright green rather than blue._

"_Must really think yer all high an' mighty livin' the high life," Marcella went on, talking to both Euphemia and Nunnally while shooting them both a rather contemptuous glare, "Isn't that right, Princesses."_

_Both Euphemia and Nunnally and even Lelouch flinched at the amount of venom laced in her voice as she spoke the word, "Princesses"._

"_Marcella, that's enough!" the man standing beside her to her left warned, shooting her a harsh stare._

"_My apologies, Roderick," Marcella said as she looked up at the man, "It was not my intention to shame you."_

_The man, Roderick then turned towards Schneizel, Cornelia and Marianne and gave then an apologetic look._

"_I do apologise for the behaviour of my stepdaughter," he explained with a groan, "It seems that the loss of her mother is still rather fresh in her mind and as you can see, it's obvious whom she blames for it."_

"_Think nothing of it, Varos," Schneizel said in a dismissive tone, "Now then, I believe that our business has concluded for the moment."_

"_Yes, I look forward to doing business with you in future, Prince Schneizel," Roderick said before turning towards Cornelia and Marianne, "Princess Cornelia, Lady Marianne."_

_He gave each a bow as he said their name._

"_Is that your father?" Euphemia asked Amanda curiously._

"_Unfortunately yes," Amanda replied bitterly._

"_You hate him?" Nunnally asked, looking rather surprised._

"_You can say that again," Amanda said as she glared at him._

"_Amanda, let's go, we're leaving," he said as he motioned his hand for her to follow._

"_Hey, Amanda," Euphemia said rather hastily._

"_What is it?" Amanda said, growing frustrated as she suspected that the pinkette would quiz her about her relationship with her father and half-sister._

"_Wanna be friends?" the pinkette asked._

"_Huh?" Amanda said in surprise._

"_You know, friends?" Euphemia went on, "I realise that you don't want to talk about your father or sister…"_

"_She's not my sister!" Amanda snapped, interrupting Euphemia, who looked shocked at the ferocity of her tone._

"_Er... your father and Marcella, so how about we become friends instead?" the pinkette continued upon recovering from her shock._

"_Sure, why not?" Amanda said as a smile appeared on her face._

"_Amanda!" Roderick called out._

"_Hey, Mandy-man, move it!" Marcella called out having followed her stepfather_

_Amanda turned back to face Euphemia and Nunnally._

"_Well, I guess this is goodbye," she said with a nod, "At least for now."_

"_We guess so," Nunnally said with a nod as Amanda turned and left with her father and half-sister._

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Present, Duel Academy Island, Slifer Red Dorm, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair's Room<strong>

Euphemia's eyes shot open as she quickly got up into a sitting position and she frantically looked around for a few seconds, not knowing where she was. However, once she saw her surroundings, she relaxed as her memories of the past three months flooded back to her and she remembered that she was a Slifer Red student of Duel Academy, the most prestigious school centred round the game of Duel Monsters in the world. However, once she had managed to settle down and thought back to what might have caused her to waken up, she… not surprisingly found that she could not remember. She knew that she had a really significant dream, like the one she had had while she had dozed off on the flight to Duel Academy and like before, the memory of her dream had just left her.

"Wow, what a freaky dream," she said to herself with a sigh.

As she turned to look at the clock that was beside, which told her that it was only twenty-past four in the morning, she let out a dissatisfied groan and then lay back down and closed her eyes. However, movement on the bunk above her own caught her attention and she found herself opening her right eye as Yumi's head poked out from the edge of the middle bunk.

"That's unusual for your dreams to cause you to wake up," the Japanese girl said having clearly heard her roommate's earlier comment, "You normally just mumble in your sleep and don't remember what it was you were dreaming about."

"Yeah, but somehow this dream was different," Euphemia replied, deciding to let her friend converse with her and she opened her left eye and got back up into a sitting position.

"Was it about that Suzaku guy, you know, the one who supposedly looks like Zukasu?" Yumi asked curiously.

"Considering that I don't remember, I can't really say?" Euphemia replied, shaking her head, "However, somehow I don't think so."

Yumi looked on in surprise. She did of course know about Euphemia's strange amnesia and remembered the time when they first met Zukasu Rikuguru and Euphemia had addressed him as Suzaku when she first laid eyes on him and she also remembered that during Zukasu's duel with Stella how Euphemia seemed to zone out as she witnessed Zukasu's monsters, which were downsized mechas called Knightmare Frames and Euphemia had mentioned a woman called Cornelia, though like when she had addressed Zukasu as Suzaku, she did not remember saying that name, though the pinkette had confided in her that for some reason when each of Zukasu's Knightmare Frames had appeared that she knew their names even before Zukasu had called them out and she also remembered that on the helicopter ride to the island, Euphemia had dozed off and had a dream that she could not remember and upon mentioning the name Cornelia and Yumi bringing it up, she had been able to deduce that in her dream, she and this Cornelia woman had been having an argument and it had ended with Cornelia falling out with her. Euphemia had known or at least believed that in her dream she had been arguing with someone and it had ended in a falling-out, but other than that, she knew nothing else and was only able to connect this Cornelia to it after mentioning her and once Yumi had brought it up, something had just told her that this Cornelia woman and the person she had been arguing with in her dream were one and the same.

"Well, if not about this Suzaku character, then who, that mysterious Cornelia woman?" the Japanese brunette asked.

"I don't really know," Euphemia said as she tried her best to recall any part of her dream, "I think she may have been there, but not as a major player this time. You know something, the more I think about it, the more that girl that had kidnapped Abigail, Amanda comes to mind."

"What, her…?" Yumi said in disbelief, "What's she got to do with anything?"

"I really don't know," Euphemia replied, taking note of Yumi's shocked tone as it was clear that the Japanese girl was not happy having Abigail's kidnapper mentioned.

Euphemia remembered that two days previously after spending time at the Slifer Red Dorm, Abigail and Terrance Richardson along with James Jonah Jamison had been returning to the Ra Yellow Dorm when Abigail noticed something out of the ordinary and convinced her brother and James to go on ahead while she investigated. However, she discovered an intruder; a girl by the name of Amanda Ribbets who had been trying to get enrolled in Duel Academy for the past three years, but kept missing the Entrance Exams each year because she prioritised the look of her hair over the exam and had decided to take matters into her own hands. Though Euphemia did not know how Amanda originally intended to get herself enrolled, when she realised that Abigail had seen her, she decided to take advantage of the situation and improvise and after defeating Abigail in a duel, she had planned to use her as a bargaining chip to get her enrolled. However, the following day when she and Yumi had realised that Abigail was missing and after talking with James, Terrance and a frantic Alicia Riverton, Abigail's roommate and along with the help of Reina Shizuki, the Headmistress of the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorm, they had found Abigail and Amanda and Terrance defeated Amanda in a duel while Reina had summoned Duel Academy's Disciplinary Action Squad to deal with Amanda. The last they had seen of her was when she was being taken away by the DAS and everyone present could not help but feel just a tiny pang of sympathy for her since the DAS looked more like a battle-hardened military unit and their leader was clearly a no-nonsense authoritarian that went by the book and did not look like the sort of person they would want to have as their enemy.

"Still, her plan was seriously flawed," the pinkette thought to herself as she remembered those events, "Did she honestly think that she'd get enrolled after announcing that she had kidnapped Abigail?"

Euphemia had to wonder just what Amanda was thinking. The moment she would have gone to Chancellor Sheppard and announced that she had kidnapped Abigail, the first thing he would have done would be to have called the police and yet, even when told this, Amanda did not seem in the least bit worried. When that scenario was brought up, Amanda had just dismissed and ignored it. It was like the thought had not even entered her head or perhaps she felt like she was untouchable and that the police could not do anything against her.

In any case, thinking back to her mysterious dream, Euphemia just could not help but think of the bluenette. It was like she knew Amanda had been in it as a major player, but that was all she knew. She also somehow knew that she had been significantly younger as well.

"Boy, this is freaky," Yumi said with a hint of nervousness in her voice, "A girl turns up and kidnaps one of our friends and you end up dreaming about her afterwards."

"I know, but I don't know why," Euphemia replied, shaking her head, "However, for some reason I just know that she was there."

Yumi just sighed as she shook her head, knowing that pressing the issue was pointless since Euphemia honestly could not remember anything. However, it did remind her that when Euphemia had stepped up to duel Amanda and Terrance had told her that he would be duel since the person the bluenette held captive was her sister; when Terrance stared at Amanda, determined to defeat her and rescue his sister, Euphemia had apparently zoned out again looking at him and she wondered if it was a déjà vu moment concerning Amanda, but immediately dismissed it as she remembered that Euphemia had been staring right at Terrance and not Amanda. During that moment, something about Terrance had sparked something from within Euphemia. She knew it. Maybe it was Terrance's stance or maybe it was something else, but something had gotten to the pinkette and Yumi knew that it was not Amanda and she also knew that Euphemia and Terrance had no prior history with one another since they had met at Duel Academy.

"I'm just thinking about this too much," she thought to herself as she shook her head, "Since Euphie-chan can't remember, thinking about it isn't going to help."

* * *

><p>Later in Chancellor Sheppard's office, Amanda stood before Chancellor Sheppard with two members of the DAS; one standing on each side of her. Crowler was also present, sitting on an L shaped sofa in the corner to the right of the door. Looking around the office, the bluenette had to say that she was impressed with its layout. The windows had white frames running vertically at a curved angle and at the bottom. However, what was impressive was the greenish yellow slats that ran between the frames with the glass between them, making for a stripe pattern. There were a total of three windows with a rather thick frame splitting them up. Chancellor Sheppard sat with his back to the window in a huge dark grey leather chair at his desk, which was a rather dark reddish brown colour with the Duel Academy logo displayed on the front. The desk itself in front of Chancellor Sheppard was straight, but arced at slight diagonal angles at each side. To his right at the end of the diagonal part of his desk was a white pipe that was attached to a small rectangular monitor coming out of the floor and behind that a little to the right was a blue plant pot with a small tree situated inside it. On the wall to Amanda's left was what looked like a brown-framed picture with a blank bluish white surface with the Duel Academy logo in the centre, but below that was what Amanda could only describe as a blue and grey control panel, only, the top of the panel was blank except for a white remote control of some kind with various different buttons that appeared to be crafted into the panel, which told the bluenette that the so-called picture was actually a communications monitor that operated sort of like a telephone, only the person they were talking to could also be seen as well as heard. To Amanda's right, she noted the L shaped sofa with brownish red cushions and a small rectangular dark brown table sitting atop a greenish yellow rug. The table was so small that it would be easy for anyone sitting on the sofa to rest their feet on it and there was also another dark brown table in front of that to the left of Chancellor Sheppard's desk.<p>

In any case, Chancellor Sheppard levelled a very stern glare at the bluenette as he studied her intently.

"I hope you realise why you are here," he said simply, to which Amanda only responded with a rather hesitant nod and could not help but gulp.

"Did you honestly think that you'd get away with kidnapping one of our students?" Crowler spoke up from where he sat, deciding to add his two cents.

"Seriously, just what were you thinking?" Sheppard demanded, clearly not all that happy, "I understand that you were trying to get enrolled here, but did you seriously think that kidnapping one of our students and threatening to keep them if we didn't bow to your demands would get you what you wanted?"

"This may surprise you, but actually, I kinda did," Amanda admitted, gathering up courage to speak.

"And it never occurred to you that we would call the police instead?" Sheppard asked, narrowing his eyes as he intensified his glare; though he was surprised at the gir's admission and wondering if she was really stupid or if she was just stringing him along with a false admission in order to retain at least some of her dignity.

"I… um, I r-r-really wasn't all that… all that concerned about the pol… police getting involved," the bluenette stuttered as she struggled to maintain her courage, though to be honest, she felt like she was shrinking under the Chancellor's unwavering glare and she felt her legs wobble and she found herself fighting the urge to fall to her knees, "I just assumed that you would have assumed that… that I would hurt Abi… Abigail if, if you called in the authorities, but I had absolutely no intentions of harming her; just keeping her tied up if you refused."

"That was rather foolish of you," Crowler said after listening to her, "You obviously underestimate us. In any case, we've already called the police and they're on their way to arrest you. We are perfectly capable of calling the police without tipping you off and I can assure you that they are quite capable of rescuing people and apprehending would-be kidnappers such as yourself. You were ill-prepared my dear. Thankfully, some students had taken the initiative once they realised that their friend was missing and went to look for her with a faculty member willing to take the fall for them, so getting the police to mount a rescue operation was unnecessary."

"I just wanted to get enrolled," Amanda said as she turned to glare at the effeminate blonde, feeling rather insulted after hearing his speech, "I've been trying to get enrolled for the past three years, but you keep ending the Entrance Exams before I get there."

"Yes, Amanda Ribbets, I already have your name on the list of student applicants for the past three years," Crowler said with a nod as he already knew who she was after hearing the report from the DAS, "However, each time you applied for a place here, you failed to turn up for the exams and we end the exams at the scheduled time; we don't wait for late-comers."

"I WAS FIXING MY HAIR!" Amanda shouted, causing Crowler and Sheppard to jump; surprised at her outburst and increase in anger, "It takes me hours to get my hair just right. I once even stayed up all night fixing my hair, but the result was the same."

"Well then, that's your own fault," Crowler said simply after recovering from his surprise, "If you really had wanted to come here, then you would have gotten your priorities straight."

"Oh shut up, you ugly girlie man," Amanda spat as she remembered Terrance, Abigail and the rest of their friends had chided her for the same thing, "I can't go anywhere unless my hair's just right and that's that!"

Of course, she knew that they had been right. She had no one to blame other than herself, but she just refused to go anywhere unless her hair was just the way she wanted it and despite knowing that Crowler was right in that the Entrance Exams always ended at the appointed times and did not wait from late-comers, she just refused to accept that and was rather miffed that they did not wait for her.

"I BEG YOUR PARDON!" Crowler screamed in pure outrage; totally red in the face as he took extreme offence to Amanda's last comment.

However, before anyone could reply, a high-pitched whirring sound could be heard in the office beeping over and over.

"What the…?" Sheppard said in surprise as he turned to look towards the monitor on the wall to his right, "Just who could that be, are we expecting any calls?"

"No, I don't believe so, Chancellor," Crowler said after calming down, though he was still infuriated at Amanda for the comment she made regarding his gender.

Nevertheless, he put it to the back of his mind as he got up from the sofa and walked over to the wall opposite and pushed a button on the controller on top of the panel beneath the monitor, which caused the whirring sound to stop.

"On screen," Sheppard ordered and Crowler nodded before pushing another button on the controller.

It was like taking telephone calls. The whirring sound was like a ringtone and one button on the controller was to answer and if Chancellor Sheppard wished it, there was another button that activated the monitor so he could see who he was talking to. He could easily just speak without activating the monitor, but he preferred to see who he was talking to as well since he did not like speaking to people without knowing what they looked like.

Anyway, as soon as the image on the monitor changed, Amanda's eyes narrowed as the image of the last man she ever wanted to see appeared with a calm and collected look on his face.

"Not him," the bluenette grumbled incoherently, "How'd he find me?"

The man on the screen had nice, neatly combed short white hair and his eyes appeared to be pink, but if one were to look closely, they would notice that the pink was because of blood vessels and that his irises were really transparent and colourless, which indicated that this man was an albino. He wore an inverted business suit with a grey shirt and everything else was white. He appeared as if he was sitting down as the area behind his back appeared to be green right up to his neck and the wall behind him appeared to be farther away. He looked right at Amanda and gave her what looked like a rather friendly smile, but Amanda did not return the gesture and responded with a rather rude and audible snort of disgust.

"Now, now, Mandy-dear, is that any way to address your father?" the man said in a seemingly hurt tone, though Amanda knew that he was faking it, "Especially since I've called to help you out."

"Spare me," Amanda scoffed rudely.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Sheppard asked curiously as he was not expecting any calls, "And why are you calling?"

The man just chuckled apologetically and gave a slight bow.

"Forgive me, Chancellor, my name is Roderick Varos and I'm calling in concern of my daughter," the man replied in an apologetic tone.

"Your daughter?" Sheppard asked in confusion.

"Hold on," Crowler said as he stared at the man, Varos in surprise, "Roderick Varos, as if the Roderick Varos… the President and CEO of Varos Industries Inc.?"

Amanda let out a rather dissatisfied groan at hearing Crowler's question, clearly not all that happy to see her father. It was true that her father was a very successful businessman. Varos Industries Inc. was a company from the small nation of Misgarth and had made inroads in mostly every single industry known to man aside from the food industry. Her father's company made everything from cars to gaming consoles to IT equipment and had even been instrumental in constructing the satellite that the Prince of Misgarth, Prince Ojin had wanted built. However, according to official sources, the satellite had been a disaster since it had been hit by a small piece of space rock. Her father's company had made various advancements in technology and specialised in improving their products and building products that were said to be years ahead of their time. Her father also managed several Pro League Duellists and had his company sponsor them as well. She could think of one Pro League Duellist that her father managed and his company sponsored right off the bat; her half-sister, Marcella Matthews, whom she did not get on with and both she and her father seemed to be out to make her life a living misery.

"The very same," Varos replied to Crowler, bringing Amanda out of her thoughts, "And as I've said, this call concerns my daughter."

"Just who is your daughter?" Sheppard asked curiously, "I have a list of all the students currently attending this academy and I don't remember ever seeing the name, Varos among them."

"It's not surprising considering the fact that she's standing right there," the albino man said as he motioned his head towards his daughter, causing both Crowler and Sheppard's eyes to widen in surprise, "However, as I'm sure you're aware, she no longer goes by my family name. Ribbets happens to be the maiden name of her mother."

Amanda winced uncomfortably, not happy that her secret had been exposed and she knew that her father was doing this deliberately just to get under her skin and annoy her.

"Wait, if you're his daughter then…" Crowler started to say as he faced Amanda, clearly not understanding what was going on since considering Varos's influence, Amanda could have easily gotten into Duel Academy even if she had missed the Entrance Exams the first time round.

"I apologise, but Amanda and I unfortunately don't see eye to eye," Varos explained, interrupting Crowler as he answered his unasked question.

"That's the understatement of the year," Amanda growled as she glared at her father, who just flashed a brief, yet mockingly sweet smile.

"Since the death of her mother, Amanda and I have had a falling out," Varos continued to explain, "And she ran away from home some time ago."

"I see," Sheppard said with a sigh.

"I do apologise for her behaviour since I heard about what she's done," Varos went on, "However, I'm calling to tell you to drop the charges you've filed against her for I've already made arrangements to get her enrolled."

"WHAT!" Crowler, Sheppard and even Amanda all exclaimed in unison as their eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Isn't it great, Honey?" Varos said to Amanda in a tone that would make anyone else believe that he was happy for her, "You're getting in, just as you've always wanted."

"Now see here!" Crowler protested, clearly outraged at Varos's declaration, "Your daughter here kidnapped one of our students. I don't know if you realise, but kidnapping is a very serious offence… at least where I come from. We can't just drop the charges."

"That's right," Sheppard agreed with a nod, "What sort of an example would we be setting and I'm sure it wouldn't be fair to the student she kidnapped or her family."

However, Varos remained calm as he closed his eyes brief and then sighed.

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist gentlemen," he said simply as he made it obvious that he had anticipated their response and it was also obvious that he did not care much for the kidnapped victim either.

"Well, we're afraid that we're maintain our stance, so no dice," Crowler said rather smugly.

"I wouldn't have put it like that, but I agree," Sheppard reinforced with a nod, not all that happy about this man's lack of empathy towards the kidnapped victim.

However, Varos just remained calm and did not look in the least bit deterred.

"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" he said simply with a sigh that was clearly of mock defeat, "However, I'm sure the public will be interested to hear about the truth of the students that disappeared four years ago, though you covered it up by claiming that they were studying abroad on sabbatical courses."

Both Sheppard and Crowler's eyes widened in shock as they heard this.

"How did…?" Sheppard started to say.

"I have my ways," Varos replied before the Chancellor could finish, "The lie's pretty easy to uncover. The official records state that they were studying sabbatical courses overseas, but when you look into it, you realise that they have no forwarding addresses and I hear that only two have officially returned."

"Now see here!" Crowler said sternly as he shot the albino a rather harsh glare, "All those students were safely returned three years ago."

"Ah, but the public don't know that, do they?" Varos said, having clearly anticipated that response, "The fact is, there were also other students who were genuinely studying sabbatical courses aboard and when the rumours started, no one was really sure which of them had really disappeared and which of them were genuinely studying abroad and since no one was informed when the other students returned, there are still rumours circulating that they're still missing, plus one of the students who's known to have returned only returned last year, plus the public have been hearing rumours of other strange goings on at Duel Academy that have involved disappearances, which only fuels the older rumours and as I understand it, there's still two students who went missing that are still missing; one of which originated from East Academy and who was on that special program you had going on at the start of last year in order to promote your expanding influence."

Both Crowler and Sheppard grimaced as they glared at Varos, whose calm and collected expression did not change. However, they did detect an air of smugness surrounding him despite the fact they were only seeing him on a monitor and that he was not in the room. How Varos found out the truth, they did not know, but since he was one of the wealthiest men on the planet, they knew he did have the necessary resources to look into it. Like Crowler had said, the majority of the students that had disappeared had returned. However, there were still rumours floating about that they were still missing.

Yūsuke Fujiwara was the name of the first of the students to disappear and he disappeared a few months before the rest of them. The rest all disappeared en masse. Apparently, Yūsuke was involved in some sort of dark ritual that involved the demon, Nightshroud, though neither Sheppard nor Crowler knew the exact details. All they knew was that Yūsuke's parents had died when he was young and he developed a fear of being left alone and he had feared that his friends would forget him once they went their separate ways. From what they could gather, Yūsuke was attempted to make himself forget about everyone, convinced that it would end his insecurities and suffering. However, one of his friends, Atticus Rhodes had grown suspicious of his behaviour and followed him to the basement of the Abandoned Dorm, which had been used in ancient times to conduct strange rituals in the past, but in the end up, Yūsuke had vanished and Atticus was left with amnesia. However, later, the academy's superintendent, Kagemaru, who was an old man and whose health was rapidly deteriorating starting doing research into Shadow Magic, looking for a way to restore his youth and had come across the basement and discovered the leftover residual magic that Yūsuke had used in the ritual to summon Nightshroud and had Lyman Banner, who had agreed to help him, but was secretly plotting to stop him bring a few students down to the basement; Atticus included and once they were captured, Kagemaru had conducted strange experiments on them.

However, Sheppard did not know this and fearing for Duel Academy's reputation if the truth got out, he had instead made it seem as if the students that were missing where studying aboard on sabbatical courses. The only ones besides the members of Duel Academy's faculty members that knew the truth were the missing students' families. Sheppard was not so heartless or inconsiderate to keep them in the dark about their loved ones and had been rather open with them since he believed that they had a right to know the truth of their relatives' fates, though he did make them promise not to tell anyone else and he also worked on trying to find out what had happened to them. Unfortunately, this had also lead to rumours that the families had all tried to get the truth, but Sheppard had refused to tell them anything. Many people believed that several families had demanded to know which schools their children were attending and he had refused.

However, during the second half of the semester three years ago, during Jaden's first year, Kagemaru unleashed his Shadow Riders and Atticus was the first under the alias, Nightshroud and Jaden defeated Nightshroud, sealing him away in a Soul Prison card and Jaden went on to defeat most of the Shadow Riders and Kagemaru himself and after his defeat, Kagemaru had released the other students, though like Varos had said, there were many students who had genuinely had been studying aboard and since it was almost the end of the semester when Kagemaru had been defeated, the missing students were able to quietly slip back into society unnoticed since no one knew which students were rumoured to have disappeared since no one thought to check which students had forwarding addresses and which students had not, so many people still believed that they were still missing. However, Yūsuke had not returned and due to Atticus's amnesia over what happened between him and Yusuke, he had completely forgotten about him and in order to explain Nightshroud's presence, he had come to the mistaken conclusion that Nightshroud had been an alternative personality brought about through Kagemaru's brainwashing when in truth, he had unknowingly submitted to Nightshroud in order to withstand Kagemaru's experiments and what really happened between him and Yūsuke was that he interrupted the summoning ritual while Nightshroud had only been partially summoned and in the resulting struggle, Atticus had accidentally dealt Yūsuke a fatal blow in the resulting struggle and Nightshroud had sent Yūsuke to his own world, the World of Darkness while inhabiting Atticus's body as a temporary host while Yūsuke recovered since in the World of Darkness, people were capable of recovering from injuries that would otherwise be fatal.

"You understand where I'm coming from, don't you," Varos said with a deceptively kind and caring smile on his face, "I've done my research. I can easily have the names of the students that had disappeared released to the media and then they will no doubt be stalked and hounded by greedy journalists looking for a good story."

Sheppard growled as he grit his teeth and continued to glare at the albino. How he found out, he did not know. After the students had disappeared, the dorm had been abandoned and students had been prohibited from entering it with the punishment being expulsion if they violated that rule and to prevent anyone from discovering the truth, the official files of the students had disappeared had been placed in the Abandoned Dorm since no one was allowed entry. On the outside, it seemed as if the students had been prohibited from entering the dorm for fear of the same thing happening to them as what happened to those that disappeared, but in reality, the threat of expulsion was simply to help with the cover-up in case anyone who entered discovered the files that were hidden within the dorm and the notion was to expel them before they could tell the truth. He remembered how Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale had entered the Abandoned Dorm on their first year, but they never discovered the files and had been pardoned after Dr Crowler had arranged for them to participate in a tag duel with the stipulation that if they lost, they would be expelled and if they won, they would be pardoned and despite Crowler arranging for their opponents to be the Paradox Brothers, the best tag duellists in the world, Jaden and Syrus had won.

Anyway, after Kagemaru's defeat, the students had returned and many pulled out of the academy, not fancying the prospect of having to repeat a year and Nightshroud did not turn up again until after Zane Truesdale returned to the island after doing a complete one-eighty after his loss to Aster Phoenix and his apparent losing streak afterwards. Zane had then developed a rather nasty, cruel and sadistic personality in order to get back on his game and had turned to underground duelling. At first, Sheppard had been convinced that Zane had been under the influence of a dark force and had enlisted the help of Atticus to try and bring the old Zane back and had Atticus duel him using the same deck he had used when Nightshroud had possessed him, but using the deck had caused Nightshroud to escape his prison, but Zane had almost immediately banished Nightshroud by defeating him.

However, events of the previous year had caused several students to go missing. Sheppard had been away on business after overseeing the introduction of Duel Academy's promotional program, but he remembered returning to find that the academy building had vanished and in its place was a huge crater. However, after getting help from Pegasus, Dr Eisenstein, who had briefly visited the academy the previous year and duelled Jaden and Zane, they were able to return the building and get most of the students back, but Jesse Anderson and Adrian Gecko, the champions of North Academy and East Academy had not returned and then Jaden, Bastion, Alexis, Chazz, Atticus, Syrus, Hassleberry, Zane, Aster and Crowler had all somehow disappeared, though many of them returned later. However, Jaden, Bastion, Zane and Adrian had still been unaccounted for and Sheppard had heard that Zane had died from heart complications. However, Jaden returned a week later and much later, Zane, who was supposedly dead had been found washed ashore on a nearby island, though just how he got there; even he did not know. In any case, he was still suffering from heart problems and it had gotten so bad that he was unable to duel anymore since his heart had become so weak that the adrenaline rush could possibly kill him. However, Bastion and Adrian were still unaccounted for even to this day, though Sheppard had heard that Adrian was possibly dead.

As for Yūsuke, he re-emerged the previous year, though in the beginning when Yūsuke had first been sighted, it had really been his old duel monster spirit partner, Honest. Honest was the name of a monster card in Duel Monsters and Yūsuke had had one in his possession and the spirit of that card had become his partner. However, Honest had assumed his master's identity in order to look for clues on what had happened to him and had hypnotised the student body to make it seem like he had been there all the time, but the hypnosis was relatively weak and wore off over time and so, Honest had to keep reinforcing it. However, thanks to the events that happened before that, Jaden had fused with the spirit of Yubel and had become immune to Honest's hypnosis and exposed his deception and was able to calm Honest down when he went on a rampage, though his target had mainly been Atticus, who had been Yūsuke's friend and he had become convinced that Atticus had betrayed his master. After that, things had quietened down and it was not till much later when the real Yūsuke Fujiwara reappeared; though he had been possessed by Nightshroud and Jaden and Jesse had teamed up to take him down, though Yūsuke had made it a triangle duel in which Jaden and Jesse were also opponents to each other as well as Yūsuke himself and Yūsuke had attempted to get Jaden and Jesse to turn on each other. However, it did not work and with help from Honest, Jaden managed to save Yūsuke from Nightshroud, though as it turned out, Atticus and Yūsuke had only played host to parts of Nightshroud's soul and Jaden ended up facing Nightshroud in his true form and won and afterwards, Yūsuke had pulled out of the academy since he was technically still a student and had learned to deal with his insecurities.

However, due to the fact that Bastion and Adrian were still missing, the rumours continued to persist and it was funny considering that Bastion had not been on Duel Academy Island for the start of the third year, but that an accident in Eisenstein's lab had transported him to that other dimension and it was by some coincidence that the main building had ended up in the same dimension, which was how Bastion managed to get back on the island. He obviously had come across the building while wondering in the other dimension. However, he had been one of the ones who left with Jaden, whom Sheppard knew had probably gone on an expedition to find Jesse, whom he had befriended and he clearly blamed himself for Jesse's predicament since Yubel, the one who had been behind everything had been targeting him.

"Like hell I'll agree to that!" Amanda suddenly shouted, bringing the Chancellor out of his thoughts and causing Crowler to jump, "I'd rather go to jail for kidnapping Abigail than accept any help from you! You don't really care about me at all; you're only doing this just because you know that it'll annoy me!"

She remembered how she had told Abigail that she would go to her father as an absolute last resort and that was true. However, she had wanted to be the one to approach him since if she did that, she could at least have some sway of setting the terms and conditions of her enrolment. She was even willing to sacrifice her dignity and go crawling back to him. However, it seemed as if he had pre-empted her and had contacted Duel Academy himself without her going him, which meant that she was doing so on his terms and conditions and he knew that her not being in control would make her irate. Like she had said, Varos was only doing this to anger and infuriate her. He knew that by getting her off the hook without her asking him to would annoy her. He knew that she would have preferred that she approach him and he knew that she was prepared to sacrifice her dignity in order to do so and so, he had done this just to ruin her day and with that in mind, she found the prospect of prison rather welcoming.

"Well, tough luck, Mandy-dear, because the arrangements are already made," Varos said, flashing her a look of mock-hurt as if he was genuinely saddened at her hostility towards him, though she knew that he was faking it.

He then turned towards Sheppard.

"So what's it gonna be, Chancellor?" he went on in a tone of mock curiosity, "Amanda's enrolment, or Duel Academy's reputation?"

Sheppard groaned as he shut his eyes, feeling a massive headache coming on and he brought his hands up to the sides of his head and rubbed his temples.

"Very well, you have a deal, Varos," he said with a defeat and not-to-pleased sigh, "We'll drop the charges."

"WHAT!" Crowler exclaimed in total shock, "Chancellor, I really must protest!"

"I know how you feel, Crowler," Sheppard said as he turned his attention towards him, "However; it's either that or this academy's reputation. I don't know how he knows about the missing students, but if we don't bow to his demands, the truth will go public; is that what you want?"

"No, sir," Crowler grumbled with a growl as he realised that the Chancellor had a point.

If word of the truth got out, Duel Academy would probably be finished since parents would inevitably fear for their children's safety and pull them out and others would not send their children there fearing that whatever made those students disappeared could still be there and since Duel Academy had tried to cover it up, the bad publicity they would receive would probably be far more worse than it would have been had they just told the truth in the first place. Sheppard had investigated the disappearances and tried to get to the bottom of it, but with no luck until Atticus returned and Jaden defeated Nightshroud. It turned out that Lyman Banner, the former Headmaster of the Slifer Red Dorm seemed to have been working for Kagemaru and it had been him who had lured the students into the basement of the Abandoned Dorm, claiming that it was for a test and conveniently, not long before Atticus fully recovered from his ordeal, Banner had mysteriously vanished and had not been seen since. However, remembering hearing dialogue between Jaden and Kagemaru during their duel, it was discovered that Banner had been plotting against Kagemaru and Jaden won the duel using a card that Banner had specifically made to be used against Kagemaru, though that did not explain neither did it justify or excuse the fact that he had been an accomplice in the kidnapping of the missing students.

In any case, Crowler found his focus shifting towards Amanda and the apparent hatred she seemed to have of her father, but before he could think on that, the double sliding doors to the office parted and Euphemia, Yumi, Zukasu, James, Abigail and Terrance all stumbled in and fell to the floor. From the looks of it, they had been listening in since Euphemia did look as if she had her ear pressed against the door before it opened.

Amanda's eyes widened in shock at seeing the group that had confronted her after she had kidnapped Abigail and before she had been caught. She did notice though that Alicia was absent and instead the boy she had seen on the day after she arrived while spying on them was with them instead.

"Shouldn't you all be in class?" Crowler asked as he glared down at them with a rather stern look on his face, clearly not happy with their intrusion, "I realise that missing out on yesterday's classes was to help your friend and Miss Shizuki agreed to take the fall, but don't think that it means that you can violate the rules whenever you feel like it."

"We understand, sir," Euphemia said apologetically as she picked herself up off the floor, "We're sorry, but we were kinda curious on what was going to happen to Amanda, here since it was Abigail that she kidnapped."

"Yes… well… that's no excuse," Crowler stated, feeling lost for words at first before regaining his composure, "I understand, but that does not excuse your truancy. However, considering the circumstances, Chancellor Sheppard and I will be willing to overlook this if you all go back to class right now."

Sheppard then nodded towards them in agreement.

"Understood, sir, and we're sorry, it won't happen again," Euphemia said with a bow.

Though Crowler was grateful for Euphemia's apologetic behaviour and appreciated her kindness, outwardly he did not show it and maintain his stern and disappointed look. He had a reputation to uphold and could not afford to be seen to be going soft.

"See to it that it doesn't," he replied to Euphemia's statement in a stern tone while levelling a glare at her, "Because next time, I will not be as forgiving as I am now."

The six friends all nodded and turned to leave. However, while the commotion was going on, Varos, whose image was still on the monitor, had noticed Euphemia and almost immediately, his eyes widened in recognition as he remembered events of ten years ago.

As the six friends were leaving, Yumi could not help but notice the look on Varos's face as she gave a curious glance at the monitor and seeing that the albino was staring at Euphemia had really piqued her interest. The look on Varos's face said it all; he clearly knew Euphemia and remembering back to earlier when Euphemia had had a strange dream in which she was convinced that Amanda had been in had gotten her curious. Surely this could not be a coincidence, could it? One of the reasons Euphemia had decided to skip class was because of that dream; Yumi was sure of it. She knew that she wanted to get to the bottom of it. However, upon studying Varos's face, she was puzzled to see that he was shocked to see Euphemia; like he had not expected her to be there. In fact, if she did not know any better, she could have sworn that Varos believed that Euphemia should not have been there to begin with. She heard him mumbling something, but his mumbles were too quiet and incoherent for her to know exactly what he was saying, but she managed to just barely make out the word, Schneizel.

"Shnigel, Shnizzle, what's that mean?" the Japanese brunette thought puzzlingly, "Or maybe it was Shnozzle. Whatever."

She then turned her attention towards her pink-haired friend and gave her a look of concern.

"Euphie-chan, just what's going on with you?" she went on with increasingly worry, "Other than your personality, I still don't know anything about you. I'd really like to get to know you; the real you."

* * *

><p>Later after classes were over, Yumi was leading the others through the forest, deciding that in order to get her mind over witnessing Varos's reaction to seeing Euphemia; she would show her friends the old well that she had found the previous day while searching for Abigail.<p>

"Boy, seems like you guys had an adventure and a half yesterday," Zukasu said, feeling a bit miffed at having missed out on what happened the previous day.

"Yeah, sorry you couldn't join us, Zukasu," Euphemia said, giving the Japanese boy an apologetic look, "It was just that by the time that we realised that Abigail was missing and decided to go and look for her, the next class had already started and well… we couldn't just come in to get you, could we?"

"True," Zukasu replied with a laugh, though he was still not too happy about it.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that," Terrance put in.

"Don't worry about it," Zukasu said dismissively with a shrug, "Wallowing over it's not gonna change anything. So best thing we can do is move on."

"Yeah," Yumi said with a nod as she continued to lead the group onwards.

As they continued to walk, Euphemia suddenly started to shiver, feeling like the temperature had suddenly dropped a few degrees and she suddenly started to hear faint incoherent sounds in the distance.

"Huh?" she said as she came to a sudden stop

"What is it, Euphie?" Abigail said as she also stopped upon noticing the pinkette's sudden discomfort.

Of course, this caused everyone else to stop and they all turned to look at her with concerned looks on their faces.

"What's got you so worried all of a sudden?" James asked as he looked around to see if there was anything in the area that would cause Euphemia to stop.

For a few seconds, Euphemia said nothing and it appeared as if she was lost in thought, but then she just shook her head.

"N, nothing, really, probably just my imagination," she said with a laugh and then started walking again, "Let's keep going."

"Okay," Yumi said giving her friend a questioning look of concern.

They then continued to walk on, but as they walked on, Euphemia felt as if the chill in the air was getting worse the farther she walked and the sounds started to get louder. She did not know why, but she was suddenly assaulted with a wave of bitterness and anger in the air and the sounds did not sound all that friendly. In fact, if she did not know any better, she would be convinced that what she was hearing were the wails of angry ghosts. Whatever it was in the air, it certainly did not feel all that welcoming and Euphemia suddenly got the feeling that someone did not like them being there.

"Okay, here it is," Yumi said as she came to a clearing and motioned her head towards an old well those rim was made up of brown stones that looked as if they were about to collapse and fall in the hole. Height wise the circular rim was about ankle-high and a larger grey boulder sat on one side.

There was a rope ladder nearby and surrounding the well, littering the entire clearing were various monster cards.

"There's even more down at the bottom of the well," Yumi said as she walked over to where the rope ladder was.

Euphemia looked down at the various monster cards that littered the area and noticed that they were mostly all level-three or below monsters with little to no attack points. Heck, there was not even one those attack points reached one thousand.

"This must be a dumping ground for cards that students probably feel are too weak to be of any help in their decks," she summarised as she continued to look around.

"Really, how do you know that?" James asked curiously.

"Well, when you look at the monster cards littered around here and notice their levels and lack of attack points, I think it becomes plainly obvious," Terrance answered while shooting his roommate a rather annoyed glare, "It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

"Quite," Abigail said, nodding in agreement.

However, Euphemia still felt the wave of hostility in the air and the noises she had been hearing were really loud now and she could just barely make out peculiar distortions all over the place and those distortions seemed to take various shapes of different types of creatures. One of the distortions made a beeline right towards her, though it passed right through her, but as it did, Euphemia suddenly felt as if her body had walked into a freezer as she felt as if her body's temperature had plummeted dramatically, though it only lasted for a few seconds, but other than that, she was perfectly fine.

"Hey guys, maybe we should leave," she said in a rather panicked tone, "Don't you guys hear those strange noises? Someone obviously doesn't like us being here."

"Huh?" Yumi said as she stared at her friend in confusion just as she was about to throw the rope ladder down the well, "What noises?"

"Don't you hear those noises?" Euphemia said as she looked around, seeing the strangely shaped distortions moving around frantically and some passing through the others, but none of them seemed to take any notice, "And don't you see those weird shapes moving around. It's kinda like the stealth camouflage from the Metal Gear Solid games."

"Oh, Euphie-chan, you're probably just imagining things," Yumi said dismissively.

"But…" Euphemia said, but momentarily stopped when another of those distortions passed right through her, causing her to feel the same sensation as before.

"I'll admit, it is kinda chilly here, but other than that, I don't see what the problem is," Zukasu said with a shrug.

"Stop being such a worrywart," James said with a shrug, "What, do you think that we've disturbed some ancient resting place of some ancient culture and there're angry ghosts around?"

"Come off it, J-Man, there's no such things as ghosts," Yumi scoffed, shaking her head, "There's no such thing as the supernatural."

Euphemia suddenly heard all of the distortions roar out at Yumi as if feeling rather insulted and offended by her remark and many of them made a direct beeline for her. However, they just harmlessly passed through the Japanese brunette and Yumi did not seem to notice.

"Freaky," Euphemia thought with an uncomfortable shiver.

However, just as she was about to ponder on just what those mysterious distortions were, the sound of footsteps suddenly caught everyone's attention and they all turned to face the way they had come and then frowned as Amanda walked out from the trees. However, what really piqued their interest was that Amanda was now wearing a Ra Yellow girls' uniform and had a Ra Yellow duel disk and the way she was brandishing it told them that she was looking for a duel.

"What do you want?" Terrance said, glaring bitterly at the bluenette.

"That is so not your colour," Abigail added as she also glared at her former kidnapper.

"In case you haven't realised, you're not really all that welcome here," James said, putting in his two cents and making it clear that he and the other two Ras still had not forgotten nor forgiven her for kidnapping one of their number.

For a moment, Amanda said nothing, but then turned her attention towards Euphemia.

"Hey, Pinky, I want to duel you," she said simply in a surprisingly serious tone.

"You what?" Yumi said, glaring at the bluenette furiously as she remembered events of the previous day.

"I said that I want to duel her," Amanda repeated while pointing at Euphemia.

"Excuse me, what?" Abigail said as she looked between Euphemia and Amanda and for some reason, she could not help but feel rather insulted since she had expected Amanda to come and continue to pester her and though she was grateful that that was not the case; the way she had just seemed to blow her off and focus her attention on Euphemia really infuriated her.

"Don't worry, Abi-dear," the bluenette said as she turned her head to face the bespectacled girl and flashed her a rather mischievous smile, "This doesn't mean the end of our fabulous relationship."

"I BEG YOU'RE PARDON!" Abigail shouted in pure outrage, still infuriated over the fact that this girl had kidnapped her and now she dared to act as if they were long-time friends.

"What's that supposed to mean?" James demanded furiously as he glared at the bluenette, looking as if he was going to walk right up to her and do her some serious bodily harm.

"Stay away from my sister!" Terrance warned in a dangerously low voice as he glared furiously at the bluenette, "You've caused her enough trouble already."

However, Amanda just ignored them and refocused her attention back on Euphemia and her expression became rather serious once again.

"Look, I want to duel with you," she said simply, "I don't know why, but when I saw you yesterday before "Mr Overprotective Brother" over there decided to duel instead, I got the feeling that I've seen you before."

Terrance let out a rather furious growl at Amanda's comment, knowing that she was referring to him when she said, "Mr Overprotective Brother" and he could not help but feel even more infuriated at the rudeness in her tone when she said it.

"Watch it, you're so pushing your luck," Abigail said as she balled her right hand into a fist and the slammed it into her open left hand rather abruptly, clearly intending it to be a warning.

However, Amanda continued to ignore them, much to their increasing fury.

"Like I said… Euphemia, I believe your name is, right?" Amanda went on and Euphemia nodded, glaring at the bluenette due to her ignorance of her friends.

"That's right," she replied as she looked towards, Abigail, Terrance and James, who looked as if they were getting increasingly enraged by the second, "And I don't appreciate your ignorance of my friends. I think you really ought to take them more seriously because I believe that they mean everything they say."

"Thanks, Euphie," Terrance said and Abigail and James both nodded.

"Whatever," Amanda said in a rather rude and dismissive tone and waved her hand as if to emphasise her comment, "But anyway, I just know that I've seen you somewhere before, though for the life of me, I can't remember where. I'm hoping that by duelling you, it'll jog my memory."

Everyone's eyes widened in pure shock and disbelief and Yumi could not help but remember Euphemia's strange dream and Varos's shocked face as she left Chancellor Sheppard's office. Euphemia had to admit that the dream she had did come to mind and she did get a bit of a déjà vu feeling from the bluenette, but it was nowhere near as strong as the feeling she had gotten the night Zukasu duelled Stella when he summoned his Knightmare Frame monsters. It definitely was not as strong as the feeling she got whenever she was with Zukasu either. It probably meant that even if she somehow did know this girl, then she obviously was not really that important in her life as this Suzaku person or that Cornelia woman, whoever they were.

"I honestly haven't the faintest clue where you got that idea," the pinkette said, shaking her head, "I definitely haven't seen you before, but if you want a duel, then I guess I'll just have to humour you."

She then took out her deck and placed it in the deck slot of her duel disk, which caused it to activate.

Amanda walked further towards her as she also inserted her deck into her own duel disk's deck slot.

"How considerate of you," Amanda said with a smile as Yumi, Zukasu, James, Terrance and Abigail all cleared the area to give Euphemia and Amanda room to duel.

"Whatever, I'm really not in the mood for this," Euphemia said, shaking her head, "So forgive me, but I plan on making this quick because I've got better things to do with my time than play along with you."

"Your name also sounds familiar to me," Amanda said, either not having heard or more likely, choosing to ignore the pinkette's comment, "Now I know that I've definitely seen you before."

"Enough talk, let's duel!" Euphemia said with uncharacteristic anger as she drew five cards.

In truth, she really did have a feeling that she had seen Amanda before. She did remember her dream and now with Amanda feeling the same and coming to confront her, Euphemia, for some strange reason felt rather afraid. Sure, she wanted to get her memories back, but she could not help but feel a bit scared of getting them back at the same time. She did not know why, but part of her believed that she was better off without them. She was rather happy here at Duel Academy and had a wonderful group of friends. However, it was not so much as the fear that regaining her memories would mean giving them up because she knew that she could still be their friend even with her memories. Her fear was more along the lines of something she had done. She did not know why, but she had the horrible feeling that she had done something terrible and that she was better of forgetting that she had done it and here Amanda was trying to restore her own memories. Somehow, Euphemia viewed that as a threat; that if Amanda persisted and it sparked something in her own mind then her whole world could unravel.

"As you wish," Amanda said with a sigh as she also drew five cards.

"GAME ON!" they both shouted in unison.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 4000

* * *

><p>"Wow, is it just me, or does Euphie seem rather angry all of a sudden?" Zukasu asked, taking note of Euphemia's uncharacteristic foul mood.<p>

"Yeah, that is strange," Terrance agreed with a nod, "I've never seen Euphie get this worked up over anyone; not even Stella."

Yumi cringed as she heard the red-head mention their teal-haired antagonist, whom they had not heard from since Euphemia had defeated her three days ago at the Promotional Exams. Knowing that Stella would not take her defeat lying down and that she was no doubt waiting for another opportunity to get at Euphemia to present itself filled the Japanese brunette was an increasing sense of dread as she feared that next time, Stella would be aiming for a more permanent solution to her problem and her fear only increased when she remembered hearing Euphemia tell her that that was the only solution she could take if she wanted rid of her and when Yumi told Euphemia of her fears, Euphemia just dismissed them; not believing that Stella had what it took to go that far. However, Yumi knew better. She could tell just by looking at Stella and the expression on her face after Euphemia had told her that that not only was she capable of committing murder, but she would actually do it.

"Maybe it has something to do with that dream she had earlier," she suddenly blurted out without realising it in an obvious attempt to forget about the cruel teal-haired girl.

"Dream, what dream?" Abigail said, looking at the Japanese girl curiously.

Realising that she had blurted out something that she had previously decided to keep secret, Yumi mentally cursed herself. However, now that the cat was out of the bag, she decided that she might as tell them since Euphemia really did seem out of character since Amanda started talking to her and the only explanation she could think of was that strange dream that Euphemia had; the one she believed had Amanda in it and even though Euphemia tried not to show it, Yumi could tell that it was really getting to her.

"Well earlier this morning, Euphie-chan woke up after experiencing a dream that she could not remember," Yumi started to explain, "Not that that's anything unusual since I hear her mumbling in her sleep from time to time and she always can't seem to remember her dreams…"

"This doesn't have anything to do with her apparent amnesia, does it?" Terrance asked, interrupting the Japanese girl as he remembered overhearing the others talking about it the previous day while he confronted Amanda over his sister's predicament.

"I'd like to say that that's not the case," Yumi said with a sigh as she shook her head, "But I somehow think that it does. However, what makes this one stand out is that Euphie-chan is convinced that Amanda was in it."

"What, Euphie's been dreamin' about that harlot?" James said in a shocked tone with his eyes wide in disbelief; unable to believe what he had just heard.

"Now that's freaky," Abigail said as she turned her head to look towards Euphemia and Amanda and had to agree that if that was true, then Euphemia's anger made an awful lot of sense.

"You know, she can't really be sure if it was Amanda or not, but I think that deep down, she knew that Amanda was in her dream," Yumi concluded with a sigh.

"And now Amanda shows up and claims she's seen Euphie somewhere before; this is just too convenient to be a coincidence," Zukasu said as he stared at the bluenette, studying her as this was the first time he had really seen her.

"Yeah," the others all agreed in unison.

"I'll tell you what else is strange," Yumi said as she recalled Varos's reaction to Euphemia.

"What?" Zukasu asked curiously.

"You remember earlier when we were listening in to Chancellor Sheppard when Amanda's father interrupted and pretty much got her off the hook?" the Japanese girl went on.

"Uh huh, though the J-Man can't say she likes him," James said as he and the other all recalled Amanda's hostile comments towards her father.

Abigail nodded as she remembered waking up after being knocked out after Amanda defeated her. Amanda had told her as much. Abigail had known that Amanda did not get on well with her father, though she had honestly been surprised that it was that bad. She remembered Amanda telling her that she was willing to go to him and have him pull strings for her as an absolute last resort. However, when he decided to help her, she had blatantly refused; preferring prison.

"Boy, she must really hate him is she had a change of heart," the bespectacled girl figured.

"I just can't believe that the guy has the gall to blackmail Duel Academy like that and totally blow off the fact that his daughter's responsible for a kidnapping," Terrance said with a growl.

"Do you think that what was said about those missing students was true?" James asked curiously as he recalled the conversation about the students that had disappeared four years previously, "Do you think that they were able to somehow slip back into society unnoticed?"

"We're getting off topic here!" Yumi snapped in clear frustration, "Let's worry about that later. I'm also curious about those students, but there's nothing we can do about it at the moment."

"Sorry, Yumi," Abigail apologised with a bow, "However, when I was with Amanda, she did tell me that she hated her father and she also told me that she also hated her half-sister, Marcella Mathews, whom her father keeps pampering all the time."

"Wow, Marcella Matthews; the Marcella Matthews?" Terrance said in shock as he remembered a duellist in the Pro League going by that name and whom he was a big fan of.

"Yes, that Marcella Matthews; ranked third and is the highest ranking female duellist in the Pro League," Abigail said and then noticed that Yumi was getting frustrated again, "Anyway, let's hear Yumi out and put everything else to the back of our minds."

"Anyway, as I was saying, when we were leaving the Chancellor's office, I managed to notice that he was staring at Euphie-chan," Yumi explained with a sigh, "And from the look on his face, he clearly recognised her, but what was strange was that he seemed rather surprised to see her."

"That's not strange," Zukasu said looking at while shaking his head, "Yes, he was probably surprised to see her like you said, but there's nothing strange about that. He was probably just surprised to see a familiar face or an old acquaintance; that's all. It's not the first time someone's seen someone they know when they weren't expecting to."

"Yeah, I know that," Yumi admitted and then turned to stare towards Euphemia for a brief second before turning back to face Zukasu, "But the surprise on his face… it was not so much as that he didn't expect to see her. It was more of a "What's she doing here" and "She's not supposed to be there" sort of surprise."

"Wow, now that's just plain freaky," James said as he gave Euphemia a questioning glance, "Not supposed to be here, just what does that mean?"

"I don't know," Yumi said, shaking her head, "But considering that Euphie-chan has amnesia, I can't help but get curious, you know."

"You best be careful," Terrance said as he stared at the Japanese girl, "Remember, curiosity killed the cat."

"Man, you make it sound like Euphie's a mad-axe murderer," James joked with a laugh.

"Don't say things like that!" Yumi suddenly shouted feeling a wave of anger rush through her, "Euphie-chan didn't do anything. She wouldn't. I mean, sure she doesn't remember who she is, but she's still Euphie-chan; one of the kindest and gentlest people I know. So don't make it out to be that she's committed some unpardonable atrocity like try to massacre an entire race of people just for shits and giggles. I think if the real Euphie-chan was really a cruel and awful person, then some of that would show in her personality; even if she doesn't remember her past. Somehow, I just know that Euphie-chan's a kind and caring person… that is if she still had her memories, she would be the same to some degree."

"Hey, hey, calm down, the J-Man's sorry," James said with a frown, realising that he had upset the Japanese brunette, "The J-Man didn't mean it like that; that she tried to commit genocide; where did you get that idea? The J-Man was only joking and when he said mad-axe murderer, the J-Man didn't mean on such a colossal scale; the J-Man meant going around killing everyone that happens to enter her line of sight."

"Well it's still not funny," Yumi said, still visibly upset and Zukasu shot the grey-haired boy a glare of his own, showing that he had also taken offence to his comment.

"That was very insensitive of you," he said simply, "In future, you might want to think before you speak."

"Sorry," James said with a deflated sigh as he became upset that he had unwittingly upset two of his friends.

"I'm not so sure about that theory, Yumi," Terrance spoke up after listening to Yumi's rant, "However, I think in this case, you're right about Euphie's kindness. I also believe that even if she didn't have amnesia, she would be the same person."

Yumi calmed down feeling rather relieved. In truth, when she blurted out her theory on how the true personality of an amnesic person oozing into their personality while suffering from amnesia, she honestly did not know if that was real or not and had simply been grasping straws in an attempt to dispel any notion that Euphemia really was not a nice person. However, she had been rather truthful and sincere when she declared that Euphemia's kindness and gentleness was a trait of the real Euphemia. Somehow, she just knew it in her heart. There was no way a person with amnesia who was really a cruel and sadistic bully or a complete jerk could have the ability to bring a group of people who would, under normal circumstances would want nothing to do with one another together, was there? Someone who gave of the aura of friendliness and who was able to make people feel at ease could not really be a pain in the ass suffering from amnesia, could they? Logically, a person suffering from amnesia's true personality would be buried in their subconscious and so with that in mind, there was no possible way for Euphemia to exude the aura she did if she really was not a nice person, though in truth, Yumi was just making relative guesses since she was not a psychologist and did not know the ins and outs of the human mind. However, her reasoning did make a lot of sense… at least to her.

* * *

><p>Euphemia continued to stare at Amanda as the duel got underway, though she could not help but overhear her friends talking about her, which unnerved her even more when they brought up her amnesia; especially when Yumi mentioned the word, "massacre" in her rant after James had upset her. Something about Yumi's comment really scared her, though she did not know what it was, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt a rising sense of fear and dread; like she had really been involved in something like that and she could not help but wonder if that was a possible reason for her amnesia, which she somehow knew was in no way natural and that Jaden had had something to do with it. However, she could not really be certain since she had to say that she believed Yumi when she had said that the kind and caring aspect of her personality was a trait that was carried over from her true personality. Somehow she knew that to be the truth and yet, she could not help but feel frightened of the word, "massacre" and she could not help but remember having a similar feeling on the day she had arrived at the academy when Yumi suggested that she may have been a princess in a previous life.<p>

"Want to go first?" Amanda asked in a rather excited tone, bringing the pinkette out of her thoughts.

Euphemia then growled as she shook her head.

"I can worry about this later," she thought as she drew a sixth card.

She then looked at her hand, which consisted of Pot of Greed, Marshmallon, Spellbook of Power, Magical Dimension, Dark Magician and Marshmallon Glasses, which she had just drawn.

"Not the opening hand I was hoping for, but at least I can make the most of it," she thought as she took her Marshmallon (300/500) card and placed facedown horizontally on the middle monster space of her duel disk, causing a life-sized replica to appear on the field and then she took her Marshmallon Glasses spell card and inserted it into the middle spell/trap slot of her duel disk and the holographic representation appeared on the field behind her facedown defence monster in a vertical position.

"I summon one monster facedown in defence mode and then I place one card facedown and that ends my turn," Euphemia announced as she was in the process of carrying out her move.

"That's it?" Amanda said questioningly as she looked over at Euphemia's side of the field.

"Well, that was the first turn of the duel," Euphemia said simply, "And there really isn't much a duellist can do on the first turn."

"True," Amanda said as she drew her sixth card and then looked over her hand, which consisted of Water Wall, Water Minotaur, Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, A Legendary Ocean, Cursed Waters Level 3 and Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus, which she just drew.

"First I'll play the field spell, A Legendary Ocean," Amanda announced as she pushed a button on her duel disk, causing the field spell slot to open up and then she took her A Legendary Ocean card and inserted it into the slot before it closed.

Suddenly, a variety of colours shot out in all directions from her duel disk's concealed field spell slot and the entire scenery changed to the image displayed on the A Legendary Ocean card.

"Figures," Euphemia said as she recalled the bluenette's duel with Terrance and remembered the strategy she had utilised.

"I'm sure that you're aware of my regular strategy since you watched my duel with Red over there," Amanda said who motioned her head towards Terrance and Euphemia followed her gaze, "Well, since you've seen it, I'm sure that you're already formulating a plot to beat it. However, I'm going to show you that I'm no one-trick pony. As you already know with A Legendary Ocean out, all water-attribute monsters gain two hundred attack and defence points and not only that, but all levels of water-attribute monsters in my hand are decreased by one."

She then paused as she reached for her Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2100/1200) card and placed it vertically on the middle monster space of her duel disk, causing it to appear on the field and it let out a rather loud high-pitched wail.

"Normally, I would need a sacrifice to summon this monster since he's a level-five monster, but thanks to A Legendary Ocean, he becomes a level-four monster and so, I can summon him without a sacrifice," Amanda explained before extending her arm out and pointed at Euphemia's facedown defence monster, "Now then Orca, destroy her facedown monster with Killer Whale Cannon."

Orca Mega- Fortress of Darkness (2300/1400) responded by opening its mouth and then appeared to partially regurgitate a cannon, which then proceeded to power up a yellow fireball and then a stream of yellow energy shot towards Euphemia's facedown monster. However as the energy beam slammed into it, Euphemia then took the card and flipped it face-up. On the field, the energy beam dispersed and fizzled out and then a white substance suddenly appeared and form into a white blob that hovered above the ground. The blob was rather rounded in appearance with the bottom being wider than the top. However, at the top its face appeared to be upside down with cartoonish black eyes that appeared to have been drawn upside down and it also had an upside down smile on its mouth which was situated above its eyes and had small black circles dotted at the edges of its lips and it also had two pink circles; one at the outer side of each eye clearly representing cheeks as well.

"Not so fast," Euphemia said as she started to explain, "You just attacked my Marshmallon and as you've just seen; Marshmallon can't be destroyed in battle, but not only that; when he's attacked while facedown in defence mode, you suffer one thousand points worth of damage to your life points."

"Huh?" Amanda said in mock surprise since she already knew what Marshmallon's effect was.

Marshmallon suddenly started to emit blue sparks of electricity and those sparks shot right at Amanda, who winced as they slammed into her as she felt the phantom pain of being electrocuted.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 3000

* * *

><p>"Kawaī!" Yumi shouted from the side-lines, absolutely gushing over how cute Marshmallon looked, "Omochikaerī!"<p>

"Hey, Yumi, clam down, ah?" James said, feeling rather embarrassed at the Japanese girl's sudden display of childish behaviour as Yumi continued to stare at the rather cute looking marshmallow like monster, "Omochikaerī, what does that mean? The J-Man's afraid that his Japanese is rather rusty."

"It means, "I'm taking you home with me"," Zukasu said with a chuckle as he observed Yumi who was suddenly bursting with excitement, "It was a catch phrase of a character of a video game that was turned into an anime some time ago and she often said it whenever she found someone or something she liked or found cute."

"Gee, she reminds me of my hyperactive roommate, whom I'm glad is not here," Abigail said with a cringe and she thought about Alicia.

Alicia had been with the group instead of Zukasu the previous day when they had rescued her from Amanda and it was the only time Abigail could admit that she had seen the blonde-haired girl shed her hyperactive persona. However, afterwards once everything had calmed down, Alicia had gone back to her usual hyperactive self to the point where it was as if nothing had happened and Abigail winced remembering that Alicia started telling her another story that she did not care about; talking a mile a minute and so fast that the bespectacled girl could not keep up with what she was saying. However, like always, come bedtime, she had managed to eventually drown out her roommate's annoying voice and get to sleep.

"Gee, it's a wonder she doesn't have a sore throat from all that talking," she thought to herself with a sigh, "I'm rather surprised she hasn't lost her voice, though I wish she did. Then I'll be able to get some proper sleep for once."

It was no secret that since coming to Duel Academy and being paired up with Alicia, Abigail had trouble getting over to sleep at night due to her roommate's constant talking. Every night, Alicia had a new story to tell and it was really getting on the bespectacled girl's nerves. It seemed to her as if her roommate had an obsession with talking about her life and Abigail remembered coming to class the following day looking rather worse for wear. Even now, after more than a month later and even after learning to drown out Alicia's voice, Abigail still found herself rather tired come the first class of the day. Even though she had learned to drown out Alicia's voice, it still took a while for her to fall asleep. However, despite not getting much sleep herself; Alicia seemed to be immune from the tiredness that plagued Abigail. Abigail knew that Alicia fell asleep after she did and yet, come the next day despite getting less sleep than her roommate, Alicia looked as energetic as ever.

"God, how does she do it?" the bespectacled thought in frustration, "Does she smuggle coffee into our room or something because I could definitely use some."

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Euphemia drew from her deck as her turn began and looking at her card, she saw that she had drawn Magician's Valkyria.<p>

"Okay, I only have Dark Magician in my hand, which can beat her orca, but unfortunately, I'm unable to summon him since he's a level seven monster and if I summon Valkyria, that'll be my normal summon for this turn," she thought as she looked at her hand and saw that she still had her Pot of Greed card, "Well I suppose I'll just have to play this and hope for the best."

She then reached for it and placed it in the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle one.

"I play the spell card, Pot of Greed," she announced as the card appeared on the field and the pot with the face exited the card and then gave a sinister laugh as Euphemia drew two cards from her deck, "This allows me to draw two cards from my deck, though you already know that, but for some reason the rules dictate that you have to announce all your moves and explain the effects of all your cards, even if your opponent already knows what they are. Kinda stupid if you ask me, but hey; I don't make the rules."

Euphemia then looked over the cards that she had just drawn and saw that they were Defence Bypass and Flute of Summoning Kuriboh and then she noticed that she had her Marshmallon Glasses spell card facedown on the field, which she had been planning to spring this turn and she then pushed the spell/trap facedown activation button on her duel disk.

"And then I activate the spell card, Marshmallon Glasses," she went on as her facedown card rose up displaying the image of cartoonish thick-rimmed yellow glasses with the inside of the rims displaying an image of Marshmallon against a purple background and then a pair of identical glasses shot out of the card and the bridge extended to the point where the rims were situated round Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness's eyes.

"And so long as this is on the field, the only monster that can be attacked is Marshmallon," Euphemia explained.

Amanda just raised an eyebrow, showing that she was impressed even as her orca started to thrash around violently in an attempt to get rid of the glasses that now adorned its face, but it was no good. It was as if the glasses had been glued in place. However, Amanda did not say anything and nodded towards the pinkette as if beckoning her to continue.

"And next, I'll summon Magician's Valkyria in attack mode," Euphemia went on as she reached for her Magician's Valkyria (1600/1800) card and placed it on the monster space to the right of the one in the middle and Valkyria appeared on the field, performing a twirl and then pointed her staff towards Amanda and levelled her a glare.

"Attack mode, are you stupid?" Amanda said, wondering what Euphemia had planned, "Your magician's not strong enough to take down my orca."

"I know that," Euphemia said as she reached down for her Marshmallon card and moved it into a vertical position, putting it into attack mode, "I then change Marshmallon into attack mode."

"Now that's even stupider," Amanda noted, knowing that Euphemia obviously had some kind of plan up her sleeve since she doubted that the pinkette was really that stupid, but still felt the need to point out the follies of her move, "Even if Marshmallon can't be destroyed in battle, if he's attacked while in attack mode, you'll still receive damage to your life points."

Marshmallon's posture changed somewhat, the tops of its eyes became diagonal from the lower points on the inside, indicating that it was clearly angry and its mouth opened slightly to reveal cartoonish style triangular teeth similar to that of piranha teeth.

* * *

><p>"Still think that monster's cute, Yumi?" James said from the side-lines as he turned to look at the Japanese brunette who only frowned.<p>

"Aw no fair, put him back in defence mode, Euphie-chan," she pouted, "He looks ugly in attack mode."

The others just chuckled nervously as they gave Yumi unsure looks.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Marshmallon clearly heard Yumi's comment and turned slightly to level the Japanese girl a glare, something that only Euphemia seemed to notice. However, deciding that it was just her imagination, she shook her head and decided to continue with her turn.<p>

She then reached for her Defence Bypass card, which displayed the image of a Strike Ninja jumping over a Red Eyes Black Dragon and throwing kunai down at what appeared to be an Obelisk Blue Duel Academy student. Ironically, the background seemed to depict a forest similar to the one that surrounded them and that the battle was taking place in a clearing.

"I then play the spell card, Defence Bypass," she explained as she placed the card into the spell/trap slot to the left of the one that currently held her Marshmallon Glasses and the card appeared on the field before being surrounded by a golden aura, "For this one turn, if you have a monster on the field, then my monsters are allowed to attack you directly."

"So that was your plan," Amanda said with a chuckle, "Somehow I knew you weren't that stupid."

"Marshmallon, the first attack is yours," Euphemia said, either having not heard or choosing to ignore Amanda's comment.

Marshmallon then lunged towards Amanda and its mouth opened even wider as it closed in on her and then it slammed right into her stomach and sank its teeth into her skin, causing her to wince and she felt a phantom sensation of being bitten.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 2700

"And now, Valkyria, it's your turn," Euphemia went on as she pointed at Amanda, "Mystical Scepter Blast!"

Valkyria nodded and then powered up an energy ball with her staff before hurling it toward the bluenette, who raised her arms in front of her face as the ball slammed into her.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 1100

Amanda groaned.

"I told you that I was going to make this quick," Euphemia explained as she glared at the bluenette, "You may believe that we've met before, but I say otherwise. I've never seen you before in my life and I have better things to do than help you chase after something that doesn't exist. Besides, I haven't come anywhere close to forgiving you for kidnapping Abigail."

* * *

><p>"That's telling her, Euphie-chan!" Yumi shouted out from the side-lines.<p>

Abigail let out a rather content smile at witnessing the predicament of her former kidnapper.

"Honestly, I don't see where she thinks she can get away with showing her face to us," she said as her smile turned into an angry glare in Amanda's direction, "She kidnaps me and shows up and acts like nothing's happened."

"And not only that, when we try and tell her that she's not welcome, she totally blows us off and concentrates on Euphie and why?" Terrance went on, picking up from where his sister left off, "All because she believes that she's seen Euphie somewhere before and hopes that by duelling her, it'll jog her memory."

"You know, it's possible that her knowing Euphie could be true," Zukasu spoke up, remembering Yumi telling them about Euphemia's strange dream and Varos's reaction to seeing her.

"That's not the point," James stated, letting his own opinion on the matter be known, "The point is, she's followed us and from the way she's acting, she's expecting us to forgive and forget. Well, that ain't happenin'."

"I second that," Terrance agreed with a nod.

"That goes for me as well," Abigail added as she turned to glare at the bluenette, "Look at her; the only reason's she's gotten away with it is because of her father."

That left a bitter taste in her mouth; that she had been kidnapped and had been intended to be used as a bargaining chip and then when her kidnapper's plan was thwarted, she managed to get away with it because her father had a massive amount of power and influence and had threatened to reveal a few of Duel Academy's skeletons in the closet if they did not bow to his demands. However, to be fair, Amanda was not too happy about the idea either due to her stormy relationship with her father, but that did not matter to the bespectacled girl. Regardless of Amanda's relationship with her father, the fact remained that it was because of him that she had gotten away with kidnapping her and not only that; but her kidnapper had also become a student due to her father and Abigail knew that she was going to have to stomach Amanda's presence at Duel Academy for the next three years. She was not sure if she was able to tolerate the bluenette's presence for three minutes let alone three years. It seemed as if some deity had something against her since she had a hyperactive roommate that gave her problems at night in getting to sleep and now someone who had kidnapped her was effectively getting off scott-free and would be attending the same academy she was. Abigail was unsure what to make of it all. However, she had to give Amanda her dues; she was also not pleased that her father had stepped in to help her despite remembering Amanda telling her that she would seek him out as a last resort and as curious as she was to the bluenette's relationship with her father and just exactly what had happened between them that caused their relationship to fall apart, but remembering that this was the girl who kidnapped her had caused the bespectacled girl to lose any sympathy that she may have developed for her.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Amanda drew her next card, which turned out to be Pot of Greed. Looking over at Euphemia's side of the field, she frowned as she noticed that Marshmallon Glasses was still in play, which meant that her Orca was only capable of attacking Marshmallon and she knew that if she summoned any more monster so long as that was still in play, then they would also fall under its spell.<p>

"Major bummer," she thought as she looked over her hand, knowing that she had nothing that could help her out, "She's sure not messing around. I'd best be careful if I want to last in this duel."

She then took her Pot of Greed card and inserted it into the middle spell/trap slot of her duel disk.

"I play the spell card, Pot of Greed," she said with a chuckle as the card appeared on the field and mimicked Euphemia's own card when she had played it, "And like you just said, it allows me to draw two cards from my deck."

She then drew two cards from her deck, which turned out to be Cannonball Spear Shellfish and Torpedo Fish.

"Oh, this could help in getting rid of that pesky marshmallow," she thought with a grin as she reached for her for her Cursed Waters Level 3 card and placed in in the far right spell/trap slot of her duel disk.

"I then lay one card facedown," she announced as she reached for her Water Minotaur (1000/1000) card, "And then I summon Water Minotaur in attack mode."

Water Minotaur (1700/1200) appeared as Amanda placed the card in the monster space to the left of the one that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness occupied and roared as he felt the enhancements of both A Legendary Ocean and Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness's presence flow through it.

"And as you already know, not only does he gain two hundred extra attack and defence points from A Legendary Ocean, but also since my orca's a water-attribute monster, my minotaur also gets an addition five hundred attack points from that as well."

However, a pair of thick yellow rimmed glasses displaying the image of Marshmallon suddenly shot out of Euphemia's Marshmallon Glasses card, which was still on the field and attached themselves to Water Minotaur's face in front of its eyes and like Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, it thrashed about wildly and brought its free hand; the one not holding its water sword and tried to pull them off, but unfortunately, like with Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, the glasses seemed to be glued in place. However, Amanda just ignored its discomfort.

"You know, I could attack since you left that oversized marshmallow in attack mode and like I said before, you'll still take damage," Amanda explained as she analysed the field, "But I really want to jog my memory, plus I don't like attacking the same thing over and over, so I'm just going to end my turn right here."

"So you pass up an opportunity to get at my life points?" Euphemia said, clearly not happy that Amanda wanted to drag the duel out, "And I want to end this as quickly as possible so I can get on with what I was doing with my friends. Not attacking me when you should have; that may cost you later."

"So what, I'm willing to risk it," Amanda said uncaringly with a shrug, "I just know I've seen you somewhere before and I'm going to remember where."

"Whatever," Euphemia scoffed uncaringly, "You're chasing after nothing."

However, despite saying that, Euphemia somehow knew that that was a lie. Remembering her dream and how she could not help by think of Amanda, plus overhearing Yumi telling everyone about Varos's reaction upon seeing her, she knew that she had dreamt of Amanda despite not remembering the dream and not really being sure if it was Amanda or not. Hearing Yumi talking about how Varos clearly recognised her confirmed that Amanda had been in her dream. However, not wanting to believe it and fearful that she really had done something awful like James had jokingly suggested, she found it easier to just slip into denial.

In any case, she put those thoughts to the back of her mind as she drew her next card, which turned out to be Cost Down. Nodding to herself as she formulated a plan, she placed the Cost Down card in the spell/trap slot to the left of the one that Marshmallon Glasses occupied.

"I play the spell card, Cost Down," she announced as she reached for her Spellbook of Power card that she had drawn in her opening hand and discarded it to the graveyard, "By discarding a card from my hand, all monsters in my hand are demoted by two levels, meaning my Dark Magician, which is a level-seven monster now becomes a level-five monster, which means I only need to sacrifice one monster in order to summon him."

She then removed her Marshmallon card from its monster space, causing the ground beneath Marshmallon to glow as a wave of distortion moved upwards and seemed to erase Marshmallon from existence as Euphemia discarded it to the graveyard and reached for her Dark Magician (2500/2100) card.

"So I sacrifice my Marshmallon in order to summon my Dark Magician in attack mode," Euphemia went on as she placed the Dark Magician in the middle monster space of her duel disk; the one that Marshmallon had occupied.

The Dark Magician appeared on the field and Amanda's eyes widened in surprise since she had heard of the Dark Magician. It was impossible for anyone in the duelling world not to know about the Dark Magician. It was the headliner of Yūgi Mutō's deck and Yūgi Mutō was the King of Games. However, aside from Yūgi, only one other duellist was known to have had a Dark Magician card; in fact, he had a total of three. However, unfortunately during the Battle City Tournament, the duellist, Arkana had been found in an underground room in some sort of coma and from the looks of it; he had set up some kind of death trap for Yūgi Mutō and even to this day, he still remained in that strange coma, but he was only being kept alive so the police could question him if he ever woke up since there was evidence to suggest that he had had dealings with the Rare Hunters in the past. According to Yūgi's friends, Téa Gardner, Tristan Taylor and Yūgi's grandfather, Solomon, Yūgi had been lured to a circus tent in order to duel Arkana and they had found them in an underground room and from the looks of the trap, it looked as if the loser of the duel would have their legs cut off by a buzz saw that got closer the more life points were lost, but Yugi had saved Arkana before this happened and it was then that he had slipped into his coma.

Anyway, like Arkana's Dark Magician, this Dark Magician differed from Yūgi's. He had the same bluish green eyes as Yūgi's Dark Magician, but his hair was a dark red colour. He wore the same attire as Yūgi's dark Magician. However, the colour scheme was different. His robes were the same colour as his hair and his armour was a lighter shade of red with a pink tinge to it and a really light red outline. His armour went up his legs, white five circles round each lower legging and a spiral pattern at the knees. His robe went down over his torso and appeared to be cut at the sides of the waist with the back and the front continuing downwards. He also had armour on his lower arms, his upper arms and shoulders, though above his armoured shoulders were two pairs of armoured plates shaped like shoulder guards; the top pair bigger than the bottom pair. He also wore the same style of helmet as Yūgi's Dark Magician, with the bottom shaped a bit like an open beak at a near ninety-degree angle with the bottom coming up slightly till the tip was level with his chin and the top coming up behind the back of his head. He also had the trademark pointed hat with four rings segmenting it. The staff also looked the same as the one Yūgi's Dark Magician carried with the bottom slightly resembling a scythe blade; three rings round the middle near the bottom and near the top and an orb at the top. The orb appeared to be partially enclosed with two ovular domes rising up behind it; a larger one behind the smaller one. However, like with the Dark Magician, it also had a different colour scheme. Instead of green, it was a rather dark shade of red; so dark that it could easily be mistaken for brown and the orb was a light crimson red colour.

"Wow, I thought only Yūgi Mutō had the Dark Magician in his deck," Amanda said to herself.

"Yeah, many people think that," Euphemia said with a nod, knowing that many people believed that, "However, what they tend to forget is that the Dark Magician card isn't one of a kind. I reckon that there're about four, five… maybe even six copies around. My main choice of monsters in my deck is spellcasters and when I summon the Dark Magician, I'd rather not have people coming to the mistaken belief that I stole it from Yūgi. That's why it's different from his."

* * *

><p>"Wow, Euphie-chan has a Dark Magician in her deck," Yumi said in awe.<p>

"Well, like she says, it's not one of a kind," Terrance said with a shrug, "There was another duellist who had the Dark Magician in his deck; in fact, he had three."

"Yeah, I remember him," Abigail said as she remembered reading up on the Battle City Tournament, "Arkana was his name, though it's rumoured that he was in league with the Rare Hunters and following his defeat at the hands of Yūgi, he slipped into a mysterious coma that he hasn't awoken from even to this day."

"The J-Man has no idea why they're keepin' him alive," James said as he added his thoughts on the issue, "He's obviously not gonna wake up, so why keep him alive? A waste of taxpayers' money if you ask me."

"Well, the police are eager to question him about his dealings with the Rare Hunters," Terrance explained, "After the Battle City Tournament, their leader, Marik Ishtar was somehow able to get a full pardon on the atrocities he's committed and as you can imagine, a lot of law enforcement agencies are rather sore about that."

"However, only Marik and his right-hand man got pardons," Abigail said, picking up from where her brother left of, "The rest of the Rare Hunters can still be held accountable for what their organisation has done, so since they can't get their hands on Marik, they decided to go for the next big thing and round up as many of his old associates as they can find and Arkana just happens to be one of them."

"Still, it's a waste of money keepin' 'im alive," James said, still sticking to his belief, "He's clearly not wakin' up."

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Euphemia pointed towards Amanda's Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness.<p>

"Dark Magician, destroy her orca now with Dark Magic Attack," she said as her Dark Magician raised his free hand and thrust it out towards Amanda's orca with his finger spread out and for a brief moment, the orca and the background appeared to transform black and white like a negative version of a photograph and then the orca shattered into triangles and disappeared

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 900

Water Minotaur (1200/1200) groaned as it felt itself losing the strength that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness's presence had given it.

"And now Valkyria, destroy her Minotaur," Euphemia said as Magician's Valkyria powered up an energy ball and sent it hurtling toward Water Minotaur.

Water Minotaur cried out as the energy ball slammed into it before it exploded and Amanda let out a dissatisfied groan.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Amanda**: 500

Amanda groaned in dissatisfaction as she witnessed her plan go down the toilet. She had been planning on using Cursed Waters Level 3 in order to summon Cannon Spear Shellfish and Torpedo Fish and used them in conjunction with her Orca Mega-Fortress off Darkness to rid the field of her Marshmallon Glasses and Marshmallon, which would leave her free to attack Magician's Valkyria and then go in for a direction attack or two if she had had her Water Minotaur destroy Euphemia's Valkyria since Water Minotaur's effect would have meant that Valkyria would have been summoned over to her side of the field and she would have been able to have used her to attack Euphemia directly. However, unfortunately Euphemia's move had just rendered her plan useless.

"I'll admit you're better than I thought," she admitted as she stared at the pinkette; or rather, stared at her blazer, "Are you sure that you're in the right dorm? You're playing too good to be a Slifer."

"Oh, so you thought that it would be easy for you to duel me and drag this duel out because of the colour of my coat," Euphemia said, feeling rather insulted, "Well, I've got news for you. Despite what many people here would like to think, the colour of your coat doesn't mean a damn thing. Jaden Yūki was, himself a Slifer and yet he was such a great duellist; being able to beat duellists from the other two dorms. In fact, the only reason I am here right now is because of a recommendation by him."

"Wait, what, you were recommended by Jaden Yūki, the Jaden Yūki?" Amanda said in astonishment, clearly not expecting that piece of information.

"No, the other Jaden Yūki; the one who sells ties on the street corner," Euphemia replied sarcastically before narrowing her eyes, "Of course it's the same Jaden Yūki. How many Jaden Yūkis do you think there are?"

"Wow, that's just… wow," Amanda said, still not having recovered from the shock of learning that her opponent had been recommended by Jaden himself.

"Grade-wise, I should really be in Ra Yellow, but Jaden insisted that I go into Slifer Red," Euphemia went on, "And I agreed to that."

"But why?" Amanda asked in confusion, "Don't you realise that Slifers aren't treated very well? The students from the other two dorms look down on the Slifers and whenever one of them proves their philosophy wrong, they don't like it very much."

"I really could care less how they feel," Euphemia said with a scoff, "My friend, Yumi's a Slifer and she's part of the reason I agreed with Jaden. I believe that he wanted to prove that his success as a Slifer wasn't just a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. Anyway, speaking of dorms, I'm surprised that you're in Ra Yellow. After listening in on your father and Chancellor Sheppard, I was expecting you to be in Obelisk Blue. Besides, blue is like so totally your colour."

"Yeah, I know and had the circumstances been different, I probably would be in Obelisk Blue," Amanda said with a sigh, "However, as you probably already know, me and my father don't get on that well. I was originally planning on seeking out his help as an absolute last resort. However, unfortunately he somehow learned what happened and pre-empted me. In other words, I was planning to go to him; not have him come to my aid. He only did it because he knew that it would annoy me and that everything would be on his terms and not my own."

* * *

><p>"So that's why she agreed to go to prison," Abigail thought from the side-lines, "She felt that if she had gone to her father, she would have had a degree of control over the terms and conditions of her enrolment."<p>

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Euphemia could not help but feel just a little sympathetic towards the bluenette listening to the anger in her tone, which also had a trace of pain and anguish. However, the memories of Abigail's kidnapping prevented her sympathy from coming to the surface and also prevented it from growing.<p>

"Anyway, after you all left the office, I told Chancellor Sheppard not to give me any special treatment, to which he agreed since he was none too happy about it either. So I duelled against a proctor, whom I trounced in just two turns and I was given a place in Ra Yellow. Anyway, I believe that it's my turn."

Euphemia nodded as Amanda drew her next card, which turned out to be Monster Reborn. A smile suddenly crept onto her face as she realised that she could at the very least salvage some of her plan.

"Okay, I play the spell card, Monster Reborn," she announced as she inserted the card into the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle one and the card appeared on the field and glowed red as Amanda took her Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2100/1200) card from the graveyard slot after it came out, "And I use it to bring back my Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness,"

She then placed the card on the middle monster space and Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness (2300/1400) reappeared and let out a high-pitched wail as if announcing its return. However, as Amanda looked over her hand, she remembered that she still had her Water Wall card.

"Damn, it would've helped if I had played this sooner," she thought while mentally kicking herself for not doing so, "But I honestly didn't think I'd need it and I just plain forgot that I had it in my hand."

She then took the card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot and then pushed the spell/trap activation button on her duel disk.

"I place one card facedown and then I activate the trap card, Cursed Waters Level 3," she announced as her other facedown card rose up.

The image on the card displayed a boat travelling across the ocean surface and underneath the surface was a huge grey mass of rock with the number, three carved into it.

"With this trap card, I'm allowed to summon as many monsters as I like, so long as their combined level equals three," the bluenette explained and she took her Cannonball Spear Shellfish (1000/1000) and Torpedo Fish (1000/1000) card and placed them on the two monster spaces to the right of the middle one.

The two monsters appeared beside Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness.

"And I summon Cannonball Spear Shellfish and Torpedo Fish and get this; so long as A Legendary Ocean is in play, both of them are immune to the effects of spell cards," the bluenette concluded.

The monster nearest to the orca, Cannonball Spear Shellfish (1200/1200) was basically a red blob of slime with green eyes wearing a nine-segmented spike atop its head like a helmet. The fourth, fifth and sixth segments each had a pair of stubs sticking out at the front and the ninth and final segment was shaped like a rocket's nosecone. If one were to look closely, they would have noticed that the "helmet" was a larger version of the spikes that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness had mounted on its back.

As for Torpedo Fish (1200/1200), it was basically a torpedo in the shape of a fish. It was two different shades of green with yellow eyes and sharp triangular teeth that was painted on across the front. It also had red fin, two on its underbelly, two on its back, one attached to each of its bottom eyelids and four at the back representing its tail. Its chin and upper back just beyond the back of its head were both a lighter shade of green with a small tinge of brown and if one looked closely, they would also see that it was a larger version of the fish shaped torpedo that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness had attached to its underbelly.

* * *

><p>"Hey, that's cheating!" Yumi protested, glaring at Amanda, "Cannonball Spear Shellfish and Torpedo Fish are both a level-two and level three monster respectively and since she played Cursed Waters Level 3, by all rights she should have only been able to summon Torpedo Fish alone since two add three equals five, not three."<p>

"You forget that Amanda has A Legendary Ocean in play," Zukasu pointed out as he analysed the situation before turning to face Yumi, "You see, one of A Legendary Ocean's effects is that it lowers the levels of all the water-attribute monsters in both players' hand by one and Amanda already had those two in her hand. So Cannonball Spear Shellfish becomes a level-one monster and Torpedo Fish becomes a level-two monster and one add two equals three, get it now?"

Yumi looked at Zukasu and then back towards the two monsters that Amanda had just summoned; clearly absorbing what Zukasu had just told her.

"Oh, I forgot about that," she said with a rather embarrassed groan, "I understand now."

"Very clever," Terrance said with a raised eyebrow, indicating that he was impressed, "Like Yumi said, under normal circumstances, Amanda's move would not have worked."

"But with A Legendary Ocean lowering each monster's level by one for just being in Amanda's hand, she was able to pull it off," Abigail went on, picking up from her brother.

"And not only that, but that trap card, Cursed Waters Level 3 can only be activated if the field spell, Umi is in play and since A Legendary Ocean is treated as Umi while in play, one could say that that card was made specifically to summon those two monsters to the field," Terrance concluded and Abigail nodded in agreement.

* * *

><p>"Now let me explain the function of those two monsters," Amanda said as she stared over at the pinkette, "You see, those two monsters supplement my orca here. If you were to study them both closely, you'd realise that they are effectively larger version of two of the attachments on my orca."<p>

Euphemia just nodded, but otherwise remained silent.

"And by sacrificing my Cannonball Spear Shellfish, I can destroy one spell or trap card to have on the field," Amanda said as she removed her Cannonball Spear Shellfish from its monster space and discarded it to the graveyard causing its holographic representation to disappear in a manner similar to that of Euphemia's Marshmallon when she had sacrificed it to summon her Dark Magician, "And since you don't need it anymore, I'll target your Marshmallon Glasses spell card."

One of the spikes that was mounted on top of the orca's back suddenly shot upwards and then arced downwards towards Euphemia's Marshmallon Glasses card, which was still on the field and caused it to explode.

"And if you thought that that wasn't enough, then just wait," the bluenette went on with increasing excitement as she then reached down for her Torpedo Fish card and removed it from its monster space before discarding it to the graveyard, "By repeating the process with my Torpedo Fish, my orca can destroy one monster one the field and I think I'll destroy your Dark Magician."

Torpedo Fish then disappeared and the smaller replica mounted underneath Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness's stomach was released and shot off towards Euphemia's Dark Magician. However, suddenly as if by magic, the torpedo suddenly veered towards Magician's Valkyria, who appeared to be glowing with a red aura.

"Sorry, but you seem to forget that so long as Magician's Valkyria's on the field, then no other spellcaster-type monsters can be targeted," Euphemia informed her.

"Oh no, I completely forgot about that," the bluenette said as her eyes widened in alarm.

The torpedo then slammed into Valkyria, causing an explosion and Euphemia heard Valkyria scream before she was destroyed.

"Crud, I really thought I had you there," Amanda said, clearly not too happy at having forgotten about Magician Valkyria's effect that so long as she was on the field, then the opposing duellist could not target any other spellcaster-type monster, which would be a bit of a bother if there were two since the first protected the second and the second protected the first.

In truth, she had been so desperate to just get a hit in at Euphemia's life points that she had concentrated on her Dark Magician and had totally forgotten about her Magician Valkyria along with its effect.

"Better luck next time," Euphemia commented and Amanda groaned.

"I end my turn," she growled, not really happy at the way things were going.

She had to admit that she had really underestimated Euphemia. She had thought that since Euphemia had been wearing a Slifer Red blazer that it would have been easy to string the duel along. Sure, she did not believe in the dorm superiority and did not like the fact that Slifers were looked down and trodden on. However, dorm placement was usually determined by a student's overall grades; both the written portion and their performance against their duelling proctor during the Entrance Exams. She had believed that those who ended up in Slifer Red, though not necessary weak would be easy to duel; especially since she had defeated that proctor that Chancellor Sheppard had arranged for her to duel like it was nothing. Heck, even though Abigail had ultimately lost to her, Amanda had to admit that she put up more of a fight than her proctor did and here she was getting her butt handed to her by a Slifer Red. She knew that there were instances where Slifers had beaten higher ranking students, but those had been few and far between and in the majority of cases, it had been down to pure luck and none of those Slifers that had won had absolutely trounced their opponents. However, she decided that it was down to the fact that she had completely underestimated her and that she had held back, plus she did not know that Euphemia had been recommended by Jaden himself and from what she had seen so far, Euphemia was proving that Jaden had been right in recommending her as she had to admit that Euphemia was a good duellist.

Euphemia then drew her next card, which turned out to be Spellbinding Circle. Looking over at Amanda's side of the field, she noticed that the bluenette had a card facedown along with her orca.

"It's obviously a trap," she thought as she noted that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness was still in attack mode, "Why else would she leave her orca in attack mode? Well, two can play at that game, but first, why don't I just humour her?"

She then looked towards the orca on the opposing side of the field and then raised her arm and pointed at it.

"Dark Magician, use Dark Magic Attack to destroy her orca one more time," she said and Dark Magician nodded and repeated the movements he performed earlier.

However, just then, Amanda smirked and pushed the spell/trap activation button on her duel disk.

"I reveal my trap card, Water Wall," she said as her facedown card rose up, revealing that it was indeed Water Wall and a wall of water suddenly shot up in front of Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, blocking the Dark Magician's attack, "As you can see, I'm not quite done yet."

"I couldn't help but notice that you had that card since your opening hand," Euphemia pointed out, surprising the bluenette since that was true, "Why didn't you use it earlier? It could've been a massive help."

"My, aren't you observant, but if you want the truth then I didn't really think I'd need it," Amanda replied honestly, causing Euphemia to frown.

"Not attacking me when you should have and now you reveal that you withheld using a potentially helpful trap card, just what are you trying to do?" Euphemia said and from the sound of her tone, it was easy to tell that she was feeling rather insulted, "I've yet to draw a card that can deal with your Water Wall; not to mention that had you attacked me when you had the chance earlier, you'd probably be winning right now."

Amanda flinched at the harshness in the pinkette's tone, knowing that she was right; heck she may even have won.

"Sure, as a duellist I duel to win, but to win because my opponent intentionally held back or rolled over and let me win; I consider that an insult," Euphemia went on as she continued to berate the bluenette, "You underestimated me because of the colour of my blazer, you thought that I would be easy to string along, but I told you that I intended to end this quickly and that's exactly what I intend to do."

She then reached for her Spellbinding Circle card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot.

"I place one card facedown and end my turn," she concluded with a furious huff.

* * *

><p>"Wow, Euphie's totally trouncing her," James said as he studied the situation, "Kinda reminds the J-Man of Euphie's duel with Hassleberry; only it was Euphie that was the one getting trounced."<p>

"Yeah, but Euphie did eventually manage to fight back," Terrance noted as he remembered that duel, "However, it seems that Amanda's totally underestimated Euphie."

"Yeah, she's totally blown off a chance to attack Euphie and if what Euphie just said is correct, then she also withheld her Water Wall since her opening hand," Abigail added as her eyes narrowed towards the bluenette, "If she had done the right thing and used her Water Wall earlier and attacked when she should have, she wouldn't be in this fix."

"So the only reason Euphie-chan's beating her right now is because she's been holding back?" Yumi said in total disbelief unable to believe that the only reason that Euphemia had been doing so well was because Amanda had been holding back.

"Yep and in the duelling world, such tactics are considered an insult," Zukasu noted as he stared at everyone else, "Euphie knows this, that's why she sounds so outraged. The aim of a duel is to win, but to win because your opponent let you win or was holding back… that is not a true win. A true win is when you win and your opponent was trying their hardest to prevent you from winning. Like Euphie's duel against Hassleberry. Sure, Euphie lost and Hassleberry dominated most of the duel, but Euphie was able to mount a comeback. You see, you can learn a lot from losing. You can learn potential weaknesses in you strategies and work to improve them. When someone loses a duel, it should motivate them to try harder and improve on their strategies and skills. Duellists get new cards for their decks because of this. Adding new cards to one's deck goes towards helping improve their strategies and create new ones should their old ones fail."

"It doesn't mean that you should go and lose all the time," Terrance added with a look of seriousness on his face, "You don't learn anything from losing on purpose."

"However, the fact of the matter is that Amanda saw that Euphie was a Slifer Red and she underestimated her," Abigail went on for her brother, adding in her own opinion, "She thought that it would be easy to string this along, but as Euphie said, she wants to end this duel as soon as possible and that's exactly what she's been doing all this time. I think the strategy she's using is known as a beatdown strategy, which normally relies on using monsters with high attack points to overpower your opponent. However, from what I've seen, it seems that Euphie's relying on a mixture of monsters with high attack points and monster effects that deal damage to the opponent's life points."

* * *

><p>Back with Amanda and Euphemia, Amanda frowned as she drew her next card, not all that happy for being berated, though to be fair, she knew that Euphemia was right in what she said. She had held back, but that was because she wanted to drag the duel out so as to try and jog her memory. She knew that she had seen Euphemia somewhere before and she was determined to find out where. She had overheard her friends talking and from what she could gather, Euphemia was currently suffering from amnesia and could not remember her past and that she had had a strange dream that the bluenette guessed must have been a suppressed memory. However, what piqued her interest was that if what they were saying was true, then it meant that Euphemia had been dreaming about her, which she saw as proof that they both knew one another; even if Euphemia could not remember her. She also overheard the discussion about her father's reaction to seeing Euphemia and in truth, she had also seen her father's reaction and it was clear that he clearly remembered who Euphemia was and like Yumi had said, the look of surprise on his face had been strange in the sense that it was not so much as being surprised that he had seen someone he knew when he was not expecting to, but more along the lines of surprise that she was even there to begin with; like she was not meant to be there and that did pique her curiosity.<p>

However, putting that to the back of her mind, she looked down at the card she had drawn, which turned out to be Levia Dragon – Daedalus (2600/1500) and noticing that she still had Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus (2900/1600) in her hand and then a smile made its way onto her face.

"Excellent, with this, I can turn this duel around," she thought to herself, "I'm still in this game. I know I can jog my memory. I just have to keep dragging this out."

Of course, she knew that that was probably going to be a mistake that would cost her. She knew why she was in her current fix and yet, she still persisted in trying to drag the duel out. She knew that it was a risk and she did not care. All she wanted was to figure out where she had seen Euphemia before and to that end, she was willing to risk Euphemia winning. Like with prioritising her hair over the Entrance Exams, she had prioritised her memories over the possibility that Euphemia could win even though she knew that it was wrong to do so, but ultimately, she did not care.

Reaching down, she took her Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness off its monster space, causing it to disappear from the field in a manner similar to Euphemia's Marshmallon and her own Cannonball Spear Shellfish and her Torpedo Fish and she then discarded the card to the graveyard.

"I sacrifice my Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness in order to summon Levia Dragon – Daedalus to the field," she announced she placed her Levia Dragon – Daedalus card in the monster space that Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness had just vacated and the holographic representation of Levia Dragon – Daedalus (2800/1700) appeared on the field and roared as it gained the enhancement from A Legendary Ocean.

* * *

><p>Abigail could not help but cringe from the side-lines as she remembered that that was the monster that the bluenette had used to defeat her two days ago.<p>

* * *

><p>"This is the monster I used to defeat Abigail two days ago," Amanda announced completely unaware of the bespectacled girl's thoughts.<p>

"I kinda gathered that much yesterday when you summoned it yesterday during your duel with Terrance," Euphemia said in a bored tone, "Can you just wrap this up already? I've wasted enough time dealing with you."

"Well, if you thought Levia Dragon – Daedalus was formidable, then that's nothing compared to his upgraded version," the bluenette went on, completely ignoring the last part of Euphemia's statement as she then reached for her Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus card and removed the Levia Dragon –Daedalus card from the monster space and replaced it with the Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus card.

On the field, rather than disappear in the same manner as the other sacrificed monsters, Levia Dragon – Daedalus suddenly transformed into a silhouette of pure white energy and then suddenly seemed to sprout a second head to the left of the original and near the bottom of this new head's long neck were two long whip like appendixes attached to the edges of the sides. Once the silhouette had completely changed, a two-headed dragon had been formed. The right head and much of the body still looked a lot like Levia Dragon – Daedalus, only the spines and webbing on the back were bigger and thicker. The head on the left on the other hand was white with green eyes and a silver helmet with a greenish yellow jewel on the top in the centre. On the back of its long neck were a line of small spines with red webbing in between; though not as big or as thick as the spines and webbing on the dragon's back. The two whip like appendixes attached to the left head's neck were rather thick nearest the neck and were a whitish pink colour. However they both became increasingly thinner the further away from the neck until they were as thin as the end of a whip.

Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus (3100/1800) roared at Euphemia as it felt the enhancement of A Legendary Ocean.

* * *

><p>"Thirty-one hundred attack points!" Yumi said in surprise from the side-lines, "That's more than enough to take down Euphie-chan's Dark Magician."<p>

"Relax, Yumi," Zukasu said in a rather calm tone, "Euphie's still got this."

"But how…?" Yumi started to say before Zukasu motioned his head towards the facedown card that Euphemia had placed on the field.

"Man, Yumi, how come you always seem to panic whenever things look bleak for Euphie, don't you have faith in her?" James asked curiously, "The J-Man's noticed that every time she does well, you get overly excited and you panic whenever things look as if they're about to go south for her."

"Yeah, just because she starts having problems with her opponent, doesn't mean that she's lost," Terrance added.

"I know," Yumi admitted with a sigh, "But…"

She then trailed off, unsure what to say since she really did not have an answer for them. In fact this was the first time she had truly thought about it, but yes; whenever Euphemia showed signs of struggling, she did have a tendency to panic and unfortunately, she did not know why. This was the first time it had been brought up and now that it had, she had become aware of it.

"I guess I'm afraid of something bad happening to her," she said at length, deciding to go with that since that was indeed true, but not necessarily the reason she panicked all the time, "She was my first friend in a long time. I remember when people would always look down on and ridicule me because they knew who my sister was and unfortunately for me, I'm nothing compared to Seika-onēsama. Euphie-chan was the first person not to ridicule me. She just came up and spoke to me out of the blue and even when I told her that I only won my duel with my proctor by a massive fluke, she didn't look down on me."

"Don't let Seika get to you, Yumi," Zukasu said with a shrug, "She's like that with everyone. I swear that she's impossible to impress."

"Yeah, don't let yer big sis get to ya," James said with a smile, "You got us and we don't ridicule ya."

"That's right, don't let your fears and insecurities get the better of you," Terrance added with a smile, "You're not alone anymore. Like J-Man said, you part of our group."

"I suppose we have Euphie to thank for that," Abigail said as she focussed her attention on the pinkette and smiled, "Now that I think of it, if not for Euphie, we probably wouldn't be here now since under normal circumstances, we would probably be unable to stand one another let alone put up with each other's presence. Normally Terry and I aren't good with strangers, but since meeting you guys and Euphie, we've been able to relax and befriend you all."

Yumi smiled as she felt tears of happiness threat to flow down her cheeks as she realised that what they said was true; she was no longer alone and she had no one other than Euphemia to thank for it.

"You guys…" she said trying to regain her composure.

* * *

><p>Back with Euphemia and Amanda, Amanda smirked as she looked over Euphemia's side of the field. She could attack her Dark Magician, but she noticed that she had a cad facedown and guessed that it was probably a trap. However, she could humour Euphemia and attack anyway, but remembering how the pinkette had berated her and aware of the fact that Euphemia had every intention of ending this duel as quickly as possible, she decided not to chance the possibility that Euphemia would spring her trap and use her next turn to defeat her.<p>

"Okay, I activate Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus's special ability," she said as she pushed a button on her duel disk and the field spell slot opened up, "By sacrificing A Legendary Ocean or Umi, which it's treated as, Neo Daedalus can destroy all cards on the field as well as in both our hands."

"Say what?" Euphemia said in genuine surprise as Amanda removed A Legendary Ocean from the field spell slot and discarded it to the graveyard and the scenery reverted back to normal.

Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus (2900/1600) roared and both its heads opened their mouth ad shot out green energy beams; the left head aiming from Amanda's side and the right head aiming for Euphemia's side.

Amanda then discarded all remaining cards in her hand to the graveyard as Neo Daedalus's energy beam passed over them and Euphemia did the same as Dark Magician screamed as the energy beam passed through him, causing him to shatter and disappear and Euphemia's facedown card also shattered and disappeared.

"You're wide open, my dear," Amanda said with a smile; happy that she had finally been able to get a shot in at Euphemia's life points, "Now, Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus, attack her directly with Twin Wave Blast."

Neo Daedalus responded by bringing its two heads together and both heads opened their mouths and started to power up their own individual energy ball. However, the two energy balls soon merged into one and once the ball was as big as Euphemia herself, both heads motioned towards the pinkette, releasing the energy ball that went slamming into her and Euphemia had to admit that the phantom sensation of being hit nearly caused her to jump off her feet.

**Euphemia**: 1100 – **Amanda**: 500

"I end my turn," the bluenette said excitedly, "How's that? I finally managed to hit you."

* * *

><p>From the side-lines, Abigail and Terrance both raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed with Amanda's move since she finally had managed to score a hit on their friend and not only that, but take away almost three quarters of her life points in that one attack.<p>

"Don't worry, Yumi, Euphie's not beaten yet," Zukasu said, seeing that Yumi was about to have yet another panic attack, "It wouldn't hurt if you had a little faith in her. Like we discussed before, just before a duel's not going your way; it doesn't mean you've lost. Euphie's still got life points left and it's her turn."

"I suppose," Yumi said with a sigh, though still sounding unsure, "She'll have to draw the right card though and in Duel Monsters, you don't always draw the card you need right when you need it."

"That's true," Abigail said with a nod, "In that case, she'd better hope for a card capable of stalling until she can draw the card she needs, but don't threat, Yumi. If there's one thing we've all learned about Euphie; it's that she never gives up."

* * *

><p>Euphemia groaned, though she had to admit that she was impressed that Amanda had managed to pull off such a move. Either Amanda had decided to dispense with her quest and end the duel or she had been afraid that she would finish the duel on her next turn if she continued to hold back, though Euphemia pretty much suspected the latter.<p>

"Okay, Euphemia, calm down," she thought as she looked over the field and saw that Amanda only had her Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus on the field, "She has one monster with twenty-nine hundred attack points on the field and no cards in her hand. I have nothing on the field and nothing in my hand at the moment."

She then took a deep breath and then exhaled as she brought up her right hand and reached for her deck. However, her hand stopped short of drawing a card.

"I need to make this draw count," she continued thinking to herself, "Like Yūgi would say, I need to put my trust in the Heart of Cards and like Jaden would say, a duel's not over until the last card is played and I need to believe in my deck. Okay, I believe in my deck and I just know that it'll pull through for me, so let's hope that my faith isn't misplaced."

She then slammed her index and middle fingers down on the top card of her deck and yanked it out, putting her thumb underneath it as it moved off the rest of the deck. Looking at the card, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was Card of Sanctity.

"Thank goodness," she thought as held it out to show Amanda.

"I play the spell card, Card of Sanctity," she announced as she placed the card in the spell/trap slot to the left of the one in the middle, "And with this, we both draw till we're holding six cards."

The card appeared on the field and the frame around the image started to glow and then the entire image seemed to transform into a golden light as both Euphemia and Amanda drew six cards from their decks since both their hands were empty.

"Wow, what an amazing stroke of luck," Amanda commented, raising an impressed eyebrow at Euphemia.

"Luck… I suppose in a way, it probably was," the pinkette said with a shrug, "But after being with Jaden and Yūgi, I'd like to believe that it was their philosophies of believing in the Heart of the Cards and believing in my deck. Jaden always said that a duel's not over until the last card is played."

"Whatever, if that's what you believe then I'm not going to waste my breath trying to convince you otherwise," Amanda said with a shrug as she also knew of Yūgi's Heart of the Cards philosophy and she also knew that Jaden's belief that a duel was not over until the last card was played and believing in his deck was his way of adopting that philosophy.

Euphemia looked down at the cards in her hand to find that she had drawn Graceful Charity, Apprentice Magician, Monster Reborn, Dark Renewal, Dark Magician Girl and Spellcaster's Arena.

"Excellent," she thought to herself as she noticed both Monster Reborn and Spellcaster's Arena and noticing Amanda's remaining life points, she knew that she had the duel won.

She then placed her Monster Reborn card into the middle spell/trap slot, causing it to appear on the field and the image started to glow red.

"I play the spell card, Monster Reborn, which enables my to bring back one monster from either of our graveyards and so, I use it to revive my Dark Magician," Euphemia said as her graveyard slot slid out her Dark Magician and she placed it on the middle monster space of her disk.

On the field, Dark Magician (2500/2100) seemed to jump right out of the ground and taking his staff in both hands, he pointed it directly at Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus, whose two heads just growled back in response.

"You brought him back in attack mode?" Amanda said with a laugh, "I think Neo Daedalus must've hit you too hard because you're clearly not thinking straight."

"But I'm not done yet," Euphemia said as she brought her duel disk up in a vertical position as the field spell slot opened up and Euphemia then inserted her Spellcaster's Arena spell card, "This was the card that won me my duel in the Entrance Exams, Spellcaster's Arena."

Suddenly the whole area seemed to become pitch black and the ground became rather straight and looked like hard iron. However a circle similar to the types of circles depicted on some spellcaster-type cards appeared on the field underneath the two opposing monsters emitting a greenish yellow glow.

"Huh, what is this?" Amanda said as she looked around in confusion.

"Confused?" Euphemia said in a taunting tone, "Don't worry, it'll be over soon. Now, Dark Magician, attack her Neo Daedalus and finish this duel."

Dark Magician gave a brief nod and twirled his staff.

"You're nuts," Amanda said with a laugh, "Your magician's four hundred attack points short of being able to destroy my Neo Daedalus."

"You've forgotten about my field spell," Euphemia informed her as she beckoned the bluenette to look around her, "Did you honestly think that my field spell was just for show?"

"Well, no…" Amanda started to say before her eyes widened in shock and realisation.

"You see, whenever I have a spellcaster-type monster on the field and he does battle with an opposing monster; if that monster's attack points are higher than my spellcaster's then my spellcaster gains one thousand extra attack points."

"One thousand extra attack points?" Amanda said in shock as Dark Magician (3500/2100) finished twirling his staff and then thrust it, orb first towards Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus and a red energy ball shot out of the orb and shot right at Neo Daedalus before slamming into the two beast, causing it to roar in pain before it shattered and disappeared.

"And since you have five hundred life points and the difference between thirty-five hundred and twenty-nine hundred is six hundred; you lose the duel," Euphemia informed the bluenette who just let out a dissatisfied groan of displeasure.

**Euphemia (winner)**: 1100 – **Amanda**: 0

Euphemia then brought her right arm up in front of her stomach and then extended it in front of her towards the bluenette with her fingers outstretched just like she had done in her victories of Dr Crowler at the Entrance Exams and Stella after she had beaten her both times.

"And that's all she wrote," she said, saying that exact same phrase she had used after her previous victories, though she did not sound all that happy, "Maybe next time, you'll think twice before holding back."

Amanda then looked down at the cards she had had in her hand courtesy of Euphemia's Card of Sanctity and saw that she had Aegis of the Ocean Dragon Lord, Water Hazard, Nightmare Penguin, The Legendary Fisherman, Wetlands and Forgotten Temple of the Deep.

"If you hadn't held back, then who knows, maybe you would have won," Euphemia continued, making it clear that she was not happy that she had won in the way that she did, "I won't lie to you in that I feel rather insulted. I'll admit that you did manage a brief comeback, but by then, it was already too late to make a difference."

She then turned towards her friends and motioned head towards the forest as she started walking towards the trees.

"Yeah, let's get outta here," James said as he started to follow and the others all followed; walking by Amanda, but just plain ignoring her as if she was not there.

Amanda remained silent, feeling rather deflated; not that she had lost the duel, but that she had failed. She still could not recall where she had seen Euphemia before. However, she did understand Euphemia and her friends' cold treatment of her. After all, she had kidnapped one of their number two days previously and that memory was still fresh in their minds. She honestly had not expected them to warm up to her, which was why she had blown off Abigail, Terrance and James when they voiced their displeasure of her presence and then threatened her when she ignored them. It was her way of coping with it.

"It's funny," she said to herself with a chuckle, "I don't know why I'm surprised. They have every right to be furious with me after what I put Abigail through unlike that ungrateful brat, Lelouch from ten years ago when I stood up for him. Oh well, at least his sisters were appreciative of me… what were their names again… Nunnally and Eu… Euphemia!"

Her eyes widened in absolute shock as she remembered hearing the others address the pinkette, who was obviously their leader as Euphie, which she knew to be short for Euphemia and thinking back on that incident, which she believed to have taken place in Phoenix, Arizona, she suddenly remembered where she had seen Euphemia before as she remembered the Euphemia from back then having pink hair and big purplish blue eyes and thinking back on it, she realised that that girl and her opponent had been one and the same.

"Wow, that's just…" she said as she suddenly hyperventilated for a few seconds before calming down as she remembered that it was Euphemia who had suggested that they become friends all those years ago.

Unfortunately, she had not seen Euphemia after that. Back then, her father had taken her and Marcella both on his business ventures and that time, he had been meeting with a man called Schneizel, for whom she understood was Euphemia's older half-brother. They had been discussing a possible deal, but even back then the bluenette could not stand her father and half-sister and was only there because of her young age. However, after that particular venture he had stopped taking her and instead hired a nanny to take care of her and so she never got the chance to see Euphemia, Nunnally or their ungrateful brother, Lelouch again. She figured that it was her father making her life hellish once again. He saw that she had made new friends and so, he had stopped taking her with him just to cut them off from her and make her life miserable. Her father was that sorted of man. Even before the death of her mother, he had neglected her in favour of Marcella and it had led to many arguments between them both. Marcella was not even Varos's biological daughter and yet, he doted on her like she was while totally ignoring his biological daughter and whenever he did not ignore her, he was always doing something to get under her skin and annoy her.

Anyway, it was clear that Euphemia did not remember her and overhearing her friends talking, she knew it to be a result of amnesia. Her father clearly remembered who Euphemia was since he had seen her that time and Marcella had totally shown them hostility; probably she figured because they had befriended her and she knew that her half-sister hated it when she managed to one-up her and since Marcella herself had no friends aside from Varos, seeing the bluenette with friends totally infuriated her.

"But where's Nunnally and Lelouch?" she said to herself, "And where's that Cornelia woman, her sister? Just what's going on here?"

She then started to run off in the direction that Euphemia and her friends had left in.

"Hey, Euphemia, wait up!" she shouted after the pinkette, "I remember where I've seen you before. Remember ten years ago…"

However, she suddenly came to a skidding halt as someone jumped down from the trees in front of her; blocking her path.

"Huh, what the…?" she started to say before trailing off when she saw just who it was that was blocking her path.

Jaden Yūki stood in front of her, levelling her was a rather uncharacteristic sincere stare at her.

"Wait, you're Jaden, right?" she said as she remembered Euphemia mentioning that Jaden had been the one who had recommended her to Duel Academy, "Why are you here? Is it about Euphemia?"

This seemed totally uncharacteristic of Jaden for whom she had had been a bit of a goofball and lazybones despite his superb duelling skills. At length, Jaden closed his eyes and let out what Amanda could only interpret as a sigh of regret.

"I'm so sorry, my dear," he said, "I don't know how you know of Euphemia or her world, but unfortunately, Euphemia's memories cannot return just yet."

"Wait, Euphemia's world, just what are you…?" Amanda started to say, feeling rather confused, but then Jaden opened his eyes, which flashed golden for a brief moment before becoming two different colours; the left one aqua green and the right one a deep orange.

Amanda suddenly felt a strange sensation wash over her entire body completely out of the blue and then before she could comment on it, she dropped to the ground.

"Don't worry, you'll wake up in a couple of hours," Jaden said as he walked over to the unconscious girl and bent down before slinging his arms underneath her and then lifted her up before walking in the direction of the Ra Yellow Dorm, "However, all your memories concerning Euphemia and her world will be suppressed. I can't risk her memories resurfacing prematurely."

This was something that Jaden could honestly say that he had not foreseen. Just how was it possible for Amanda, a native of his world to know about Euphemia, a native of a completely different world entirely? Just what was going on? He already had enough problems with Zukasu and his Knightmare Frame Deck, which according to the Duel Monsters' database, did not exist. He was still awaiting a call from Axel about Nelkal Uzkikō, the Kallen look-alike that was currently attending North Academy and whom Jaden was sure was going to be the North Academy's representative come the annual School Duel between North Academy and Duel Academy, but apparently Axel was still looking into her.

Looking back at where Euphemia and her friends had been, Jaden could not help but chuckle. That was the old well that Professor Banner had told him and Chazz about that time Chazz's brothers, Slade and Jagger had somehow convinced Seto Kaiba to sell them the Duel Academy. They had at first tried to bride Kaiba, but Kaiba was not interested in money and told them that he would only sell them the academy if they could defeat one of the students in a duel; as Kaiba put it, "I will only sell you my academy if you prove your worth as a duellist". However, Slade and Jagger had already picked Chazz, wanting payback for his betrayal in their plan for world domination. They also said that they would only duel if Chazz only used monsters with five hundred attack points or less and Kaiba agreed and not only that, but Slade would duel Chazz using the briefcase full of rare and powerful cards that they had given him to use in the School Duel, which he did not use. At first, Chazz had given up since he only had Ojama Yellow, but then Banner told them of the well and both Chazz and Jaden set out to look for it… well Chazz did at least; Jaden only tagged along, much to Chazz's displeasure. Anyway they found the well and Chazz was able to build a deck, which he had used in his duel with Slade, which he won by taking advantage of a loophole in the agreement. Slade and Jagger had said that Chazz was not allowed to duel with monsters with over five hundred attack points, but they had never said anything about using cards to enhance a monster's attack points over five hundred. He had used Chaos Necromancer to win the duel, whose attack points were zero, but its effect gave it three hundred attack points for each monster in the graveyard and Chazz had eleven, which gave it a total of thirty-three hundred attack points, but since its base attack points were below the five hundred attack point limit, Chazz was technically not violating the agreement. Jaden even remembered telling the two crooked Princeton Brothers that their arrangement was not fair and they had no qualms about admitting it and that that was the entire point. The point was that Slade was not a duellist and he knew that if he had gone up against Chazz and Chazz used his real deck; then rare cards or not, Slade knew that there was a high chance that he would lose.

Anyway, remembering his time at the well and since he had been watching Euphemia, he knew that she had heard strange noises and saw strangely shaped distortions in the air. Those were the spirits of the cards that had been discarded there and their hostility towards Euphemia and her friends was due to anger at having been discarded there. However, fortunately for them, the spirits were all too weak to do them any real harm. Most of the cards at the well had little to no attack points and were mostly level-one, level-two and maybe even the odd level-three monsters.

Anyway, looking down at Amanda, he decided that it was best to get her back to the Ra Yellow Dorm, though he was not too happy at the fact that she knew too much and he was also aware of her father, Varos and knew that he somehow had something to do with how Amanda knew Euphemia, though he did not know what; though he was determined to find out what and just how it could affect Euphemia.

"Looks like I've just found a potential bad guy for you to face, Euphie," he thought as he continued to walk through the forest.

As for Amanda, he had simply done to her what he had done to the doctor and nurse back on the Avalon. It was a power that had originated from Yubel and since he and Yubel had merged, he had access to all Yubel's powers. It was also a power that Yubel had used during his childhood. Jaden remembered that when he was a child, his father had given him the Yubel card. The spirit of the card had been associated with one of Jaden's previous incarnations; the boy who would eventually go on to become the Supreme King and Yubel had offered to be his guardian till he learned to control his power. Yubel had once been human and the process she had underwent to become the Supreme King's guardian was what made her into what she was now and the Supreme King had been rather touched that Yubel had gone through such a painful process and he had originally been opposed to it because of how it had hurt Yubel. Touched that she had done that for him, he had vowed that he would love her for eternity. When the Supreme King had been reincarnated into Jaden, Yubel remembered who he was and remembered this promise and had vowed to continue to protect him. Unfortunately for Jaden, Yubel perceived all of Jaden's friends as threats… if not to Jaden himself, then their relationship. Yubel had become paranoid that all of Jaden's friends; regardless of gender were trying to take Jaden away from her. Since Jaden's parents were mostly away at work, Jaden would often invite some of the neighbourhood kids around to duel and every time he duelled, he had added Yubel to his deck and always spent the entire duel trying to summon her to the field, but unfortunately his eagerness to draw and summon Yubel caused him to lose the duel and Yubel's spirit had been so powerful that she was able to affect the physical world and she had used her powers to send the children that she believed were trying to take Jaden from her into comas and not even the world's greatest medical experts could figure out what was wrong with them. This happened every time Jaden duelled with Yubel in his deck and people started to believe that he was cursed and so they refused to duel him and Jaden ended up becoming rather lonely.

Anyway, the power Jaden had used on the doctor and nurse on the Avalon and Amanda was the same power Yubel had used on his friends, though nowhere near as strong and the power was in no way fatal since all those that Yubel had targeted had eventually recovered, though Jaden remembered whenever he visited them in hospital, he always had Yubel on his person and Yubel used her power to worsen their condition. However, unlike Yubel, Jaden had used a lighter dose and had suppressed the memories of the nurse and doctor on board the Avalon. As for Amanda, she would wake up in a few hours feeling absolutely fine, but her memories of Euphemia and members of her family would be suppressed and should anyone bring up her reason for duelling Euphemia, Jaden had incorporated a bit of hypnosis to convince the bluenette that it had been a misunderstanding and that Euphemia had a strong resemblance to someone she had remembered in her childhood.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at Varos's home in Misgarth, Varos was currently sitting in front of his communications monitor as Schneizel's image suddenly appeared on the screen looking a bit surprised, but mostly annoyed, though he did manage to compose himself before speaking.<p>

"Varos, this is quite a pleasant surprise," he said in a calm and professional tone that would have probably fooled the albino into believing that everything was fine had he not noticed his demeanour before he started to talk, "I wasn't expecting another call from you so soon."

"I apologise if I've interrupted something important," Varos replied in an apologetic tone, "If you'd prefer, perhaps this can wait till later."

Schneizel just let out a rather polite chuckle in response.

"No, it's I who must apologise," he said with a clearly frustrated sigh, "I'm funding an awful lot of projects as of late and apparently it seems I'm having problems with one of them. It's nothing to do with difficulty or anything; it's just some of the staff there are refusing to work with the person I've assigned to head the project and are demanding that I remove her. They seem to think that she's insane."

"I'm sorry to hear that and I'm also sorry for disturbing you," Varos replied with a sigh, "However, I have some news that I think might interest you."

"Oh," Schneizel said, raising a curious eyebrow, "And what would that be?"

"Well, you remember my daughter, Amanda, don't you?" the albino asked and Schneizel nodded, beckoning him to continue, "Well, apparently she's gotten into a spot of bother and I so graciously decided to help her out. However, while I was doing that, I seemed to notice someone… now I'm not sure if I'm totally convinced here, but if I didn't know any better, I would have to say that it was your younger half-sister, Euphemia."

Schneizel's eyes widened in pure shock and disbelief as his composure slipped briefly, but almost immediately, he managed to regain it.

"Euphemia, you say?" he said sounding as professional as before, though Varos did notice the hint of scepticism in his voice, "I'm afraid that you're sadly mistaken. You see, my half-sister's been dead for at least three months now. I don't know the exact details of what happened, but apparently, she had orchestrated a massacre of my world's Japanese."

"Huh?" Varos said in confusion, "Are you sure? I mean, I admit that I could have been mistaken, but the resemblance was uncanny."

"Yes, I'm sure," Schneizel said with a sigh, "Though I will say that three months previously after she died, her body had ended up mysteriously vanishing from my flagship, the Avalon while it was still in the air."

Varos raised a curious eyebrow at that. However, after a few seconds of looking lost in thought, Schneizel stared back at Varos and nodded.

"Okay, I'll admit that I'm not all that convinced, but I will send some men to investigate," he said at length, "When my men arrive, I'll be putting them under your command. It'll be up to you to direct them on where to go and whatnot."

"Yes, Prince Schneizel," Varos said with a bow, "Though if it does turn out to be a mistake, then I sincerely apologise."

"Think nothing of it," Schneizel said dismissively with a wave of his hand, "As I said before, I'm not convinced since she had been confirmed dead before her body disappeared, but considering the fact that her body had disappeared under mysterious circumstances and with no possible way that I can see how they could've infiltrated my ship and escaped unnoticed, I think that this is worth looking into."

Varos nodded, though he had a frown on his face. The truth was, he had seen Euphemia when he had contacted Chancellor Sheppard at Duel Academy. He knew that it was Euphemia. However, in light of Schneizel's revelations, he had decided to play along since he knew how influential Schneizel was and did not fancy the idea of angering him. Sure, whenever they had spoken, Schneizel was all sweetness and laughs, but Varos had heard stories while in Schneizel's world of Schneizel's prowess as a tactical strategist. Schneizel was an absolute genius and despite his seemingly polite personality, Varos knew that underneath was probably someone far more ruthless who would not hesitate to strike people down if need be. He and Schneizel had had a partnership for the past ten years and Varos valued that partnership and knew that it was not in his best interests to make an enemy out of Schneizel. The Britannian Prince was clearly one enemy that no one in their right mind would want to have.

Anyway, remembering back to his conversation with Chancellor Sheppard after Euphemia and some others interrupted; Euphemia had stood out like a sore thumb and he did not care what Schneizel said; he did see Euphemia and nothing; not even Schneizel's revelations could change that. However, he knew better than to argue with the blonde-haired prince and so played along with it. However, Schneizel's revelations did pique his curiosity. He honestly could not believe that Euphemia would start a massacre and listening to Schneizel's tone when he told him, it was clear that he did not believe it either. There was clearly more to it than that and Varos knew that Schneizel knew more than what he was telling him or at the very least, he had his suspicions as to what really went on since by his own admission, he did not know exactly what had happened, but Varos was not interested in that. What interested him was that Euphemia had apparently died and disappeared from an airborne vessel with no indication that anyone had infiltrated or escaped from said vessel and yet, here she was alive and well attending Duel Academy in a world that was not her own.

"Strange… and yet, at the same time, fascinating," he thought to himself as a smile slowly etched itself onto the edges of his lips, "I wonder if the supernatural could somehow be involved."

That was one possibility that he found himself considering. Varos was a firm believer in the supernatural. He had looked into the history of Duel Monsters and traced its roots back to Ancient Egypt and from researching that, he knew that Duel Monsters had ties to supernatural powers. Certain events in the past decade or so that could not properly be explained… Varos knew that the supernatural had to be involved. He had done his research. He discovered people who went into comas mysteriously, became paranoid for no apparent reason and some who were believed to be hallucinating; those had been due to supernatural powers along with mysterious unexplained deaths. That time duel monsters had run amuck all over the entire world and the reputations of both Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp had been threatened as many had come to believe that it was all one big publicity stunt on the part of both companies to promote the game of Duel Monsters had been down to supernatural powers as well. Varos was not stupid. He knew that there was no possible way for anyone to execute a publicity stunt on that big a scale and yet, the majority of people refused to believe that and were willing to delude themselves for no other reason other than because that explanation was the most believable. People had a fear of the unknown and whenever encountered with the unknown they found themselves coming up with believable excuses to explain it and it did not matter how ridiculous their excuses were; they just stuck to them because it was easier to believe than the truth.

He remembered last year when the entire world had been gripped with an unexplained eclipse. Apparently, some huge celestial object had moved in front of the sun and it was apparently big enough to block all sunlight to the half of the Earth that faced the sun and the entire world had been plummeted into perpetual darkness and if that was not enough, the entire world's population had started to vanish and even more frightening was that those that vanished seemed to disappear from everyone else's memories; they also vanished from pictures that had them in them and their names had also vanished from all written records of them. It was like whenever someone vanished, all evidence of that person's existence had been erased. Varos remembered experiencing it and how frightening it had been. He remembered how people's names and physical descriptions had vanished from his mind. However, he still knew that they existed; it was just that he could not remember their names, what they looked like or even their memories together. However, eventually the world returned to normal and everyone was returned to the Earth and whatever had caused the eclipse had vanished. The official report into the incident was a mysterious freak event that could not be explained even to this day, but the majority of people were quick to forget and go back to their normal lives like nothing had happened. As far as they were concerned, whatever had happened had caused them all to fall asleep since when returned, they felt as if they were waking up and seemed to forget that they had disappeared from the Earth and had apparently been erased from existence. Some people had even suggested the idea of a mass alien abduction, though Varos knew that the supernatural was involved. However, the majority of people had apparently blocked it from their minds and believed that the eclipse happened and it had somehow made them all fall asleep. He supposed that it was their brains' psychological defence mechanisms at work. Sometimes the brain would suppress a person's memories of certain events in order to protect them; like someone who grew up with abusive parents; the brain may eventually decide to suppress the person's memories of the abuse in order to protect them. Psychogenic Amnesia was what he believed it was called. The majority of the world's populace had been gripped by psychogenic amnesia of what really happened the previous year. Their brains had obviously decided that the truth was too traumatic for them and so in order to protect them, their brains had suppressed their memories so they would not have to face up to the truth that the supernatural existed.

It was not a far stretch to assume that the supernatural was also into in Euphemia's mysterious disappearance and apparent revival, though the idea of a power capable of reviving the dead sounded too farfetched to him, but if what Schneizel said was true, then it was indeed possible, though he held his tongue, knowing that he needed proof to convince the Britannian Prince otherwise. He knew that if he told Schneizel now, the blonde-haired prince would think him mad and so he decided that he would accept Schneizel's offer to send some men. However, he would also send his own men in case something happened to Schneizel's men since it was possible that whoever stole Euphemia's body and revived her may also be watching her and may perceive the knowledge of her origins as a threat to whatever plan they had.

"Prince Schneizel, if I may… I would also like to send some of my own men as well," he spoke up and Schneizel raised a curious eyebrow, but remained silent and Varos took this as an invitation to continue, "Not that I don't have faith in your men's abilities or anything. I'm sure that they're perfectly capable, but if what you say is true and this does turn out to be Princess Euphemia, then whoever took her may still be with her and could be ready for your men."

Schneizel nodded, indicating that he agreed with the albino.

"Yes, there is that," he acknowledged with another nod, "Very well, I'll allow for you to have your men assist if need be. They will follow my men and should my men fail, your men will pick up the pieces."

"Understood," Varos said with a nod.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to listening to the complaints of those unhappy workers," Schneizel said before the screen went blank.

Varos then stood up and walked over to a phone that was in the corner of the room to the left of the door. However just as he reached the phone, he stopped.

"Xerros!" he shouted at the top of his voice.

A few minutes later the doors to the room opened and Xerros walked in.

"Yes, Master Varos, what is it?" he asked with a bow.

"Some of Prince Schneizel's men will be arriving here shortly and will be on their way to Duel Academy," the albino went on with a smile, "It seems that I've discovered that his half-sister who he has just informed me was supposed to have died three months ago is alive and well and is attending Duel Academy."

"I see, so I suppose you'll want me to make some arrangements," the butler asked curiously.

"Naturally," Varos replied with a nod, "I'm also going to be sending some of my men as well. It seems that something might be going on here."

He then picked up the phone and dialled in a number and after just one ring, the person on the other end answered.

"Hello," the voice of a man came from the other end.

"Scraven," Varos said in a serious tone, "I'm sending you and your team on an assignment."

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of next chapter<strong>

Titan is in the Shadow Realm falling through a bottomless abyss surrounded by grey blobs with black dotted eyes and mouth with jagged teeth

As he screams for help a tall cloaked silhouette with glowing blue eyes that cannot be seen properly appears before him

"_You said you'd do anything to escape, didn't you?" the silhouette says._

"_Yes, I'll do anything; even get down on my hands and knees and be used as a human footstool!" Titan screams, "Just get me outta here, I'll even do your bidding!"_

A skeletal hand reaches out over Titan and shots out a black mist that enters Titan's mask and an image of Euphemia flashes before his mind's eye

"_Very well, I shall lend you just a portion of my power," the silhouette says, "In exchange you are to find this girl and have her take your place here."_

It's night on Duel Academy Island and just outside the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm a black mist appears and when it disperses, Titan is standing there, though his white "Phantom of the Opera" style mask is now purple with a red ovular ruby situated above the area between the eyes on his forehead.

"_Euphemia Felixton," Titan says with determination in his voice, "Or is it Euphemia li Britannia?"_

Meanwhile in the Slifer Red dining hall, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair are telling scary stories with the scare level determined by the level of the monster card drawn.

After Yumi tells her story, getting so into it, she starts acting it out, Euphemia draws and gets a level-seven monster and ends up unknowingly narrating a heavily edited version of the SAZ massacre, calling the story Princess Massacre, which terrifies even her.

_"How's it going girls?" the voice of Sophia Arenson comes._

Sophia and her husband both appear with their dog, Greyfang, scaring the three girls.

_"Don't do that, I almost thought that you were Princess Massacre," Yumi says after recovering._

Arenson draws a level-twelve monster and then tells the three girls about the Abandoned Dorm and the rumours surrounding it as well as adding his opinion on the matter.

"_Yeah right, the supernatural doesn't exist," Yumi says, totally blowing his story off._

"_That's what most people say," Arenson replies dismissive, "But you know, these stories have to come from somewhere."_

As the Arensons retire for the night, Jaden, who's just outside looks concerned after hearing Euphemia's story, knowing that it's just an edited version of the SAZ Massacre

Unaware of Jaden's presence, Euphemia vows to check out the Abandoned Dorm and Blair agrees to show her with Yumi not really sure whether it's a good idea.

_"Wait a minute, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea," Yumi says with a hint of fear in her voice._

"_Oh don't be such a worrywart, Yumi," Euphemia says dismissively, "We'll be fine."_

The next day in class, Abigail is not too happy after learning that Amanda's been assigned to her and Alicia's room

"_Just who's idea was it to pile her onto me?" Abigail growls, "Someone upstairs must really have it in for me."_

Alicia and Amanda are on either side of her talking away as if Abigail's kidnapping never happened, much to Abigail's annoyance.

"_Why me?" Abigail groaned, "What did I do to deserve this?"_

Later that night, Blair is leading Euphemia and a reluctant Yumi towards the Abandoned Dorm, but on the way, Euphemia notices a book at the side of the path

"_Someone left a book," Euphemia says curiously_

"_Yeah, let's look at the book," Yumi says, clearly not wanting to go to the Abandoned Dorm_

However, the book's text is all blurry due to exposure to the elements aside from one word that stands out throughout the book; Nightshroud.

"_Suddenly I've got a really bad feeling about this," Blair says as her confidence starts to dwindle_

Nonetheless they continue forward and come to the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm, but as they move closer a golden medallion with the Eye of Anubis symbol slips off a tree branch and falls right around Euphemia's neck

Euphemia tries to remove the medallion, but unfortunately finds that its stuck round her neck as the string seems to shorten each time she tries to pull it off.

"_Hey, what's going here?" Euphemia says in a slightly panicked tone, "I can't get this off."_

After trying and failing to get the medallion off, Euphemia decides to leave it till later and continues towards the Abandoned Dorm.

Once there, they meet Abigail, Terrance, James and Zukasu who also seem to be curious about the old dorm.

_"What're you guys doing here?" Blair asks curiously_

"_We'd be asking you the same question," Terrance says, "But as for us, we're carrying out an investigation."_

Terrance and Abigail tell the others about Bastion and that he's their cousin and the others agree to help out. However, upon going down to the basement, Yumi objects.

"_Hold it, guys," Yumi says making her stand, "I'm not going any further, it's dark down there."_

"_Okay, if it terrifies you so much, then you can wait for us here," Euphemia says with a sigh_

"_Yes, that's right, I'll stay here," Yumi says_

As the others descend into the basement, Yumi stays behind, waiting for them, but as she's looking around, Titan appears behind her and grabs her

"_Euphie-chan, help!" Yumi screams._

Yumi wakes up later to find that she bound to a vertical table and is upside down.

Titan appears in the company of two men who look completely identical and after emitting a black aura, Yumi screams in fright.

Yumi's scream is heard by the others and Euphemia quickly rushes ahead, but when the others try to follow, a wind suddenly picks up and a group of duel monster cards surrounded by a black mist appears in front of them and forms into a man identical to the two in Titan's company.

_"I am Trueman and this is as far as you go," the man says simply_

Trueman's left arm seems to grow a duel tray and a deck slot with a deck of cards sticking out as he challenges one of the group to a duel.

"_Wow, that's so gross, is this guy real?" James says in horror._

"_You know, I can't help but feel that I've seen this guy somewhere before," Terrance says curiously_

"_Me to," Abigail says in agreement, though she sounds confused_

Zukasu steps forward and decides to duel Trueman.

"DUEL!" they both shout in unison, not bothering with the usual Game on phrase

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Trueman**: 4000

Zukasu wins and Trueman screams as he appears to transform back into black mist before vanishing along with the cards that made up his form

"_Next time: Shadow Game Tasters! part 1" Zukasu says with increasing concern as he worries about Euphemia and Yumi, "Euphie, Yumi, please be okay."_

After recovering from the shock of what they just saw, they all rush off in the direction Euphemia ran off in

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Daedalus

**Attribute** – Water

**Type** – Sea Serpent/Effect

**Level** – 8

**ATK/DEF** – 2900/1600

**Info** – This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by Tributing one "Levia Dragon – Daedalus". You can send "Umi" you control to the Graveyard to send all cards in both players' hands and on the field to the Graveyard, except this card.

"_Man what a chapter," Jaden says excitedly, "Euphie wins another duel."_

"_But only because her opponent held back," the author says, "Euphemia may win most of her duels, but she'll end up losing quite a few as well."_

"_What?" Jaden says in surprise._

"_Yes, Euphemia will lose more times than you did in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX," the author goes on, "She won't be as much of a Boring Invincible Hero like you were."_

"_I wasn't that boring when I won, was I?" Jaden asks, feeling deflated._

"_Apparently Professor Stein seemed to think so," the author explains, "He blamed your laziness and superb duelling skills for ruining his life as a teacher when all other students seemed to follow your example in fallen asleep and ditching class, but if you want my opinion, Professor Stein's voice sounds so dull and boring that he can just put people to sleep just by talking. He starts talking and everyone else just falls asleep in listening to his monotone voice. I think he was only using you as an excuse since he did not want to accept the truth and needed someone to blame."_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Finally another chapter done and it took me about a week and a half to type; though to be fair one day, my brother needed the computer for his university work and it took him longer than he had anticipated and another day, my family's router started playing up for some reason. Anyway, as you can see, I've given Villetta some extra incentives for wanting Lelouch dead and just so you know; yes, Villetta and Marianne will be subjected to the "Ron the Death Eater" treatment. I just don't like them; Villetta because she was partially involved in convincing the Black Knights to betray Lelouch and Ohgi seemed to chase after her like a lovesick puppy despite her shooting him and believe everything she said and taking it at face value and Marianne because I feel that she was manipulative to the point of being a female Sosuke Aizen. It seemed to me through her telepathy conversations with C.C. that Marianne seemed to enjoy the fact that she was effectively stringing Lelouch along and playing him for a fool and despite saying that she loved her children, I'm not totally convinced of that. What sort of a mother would just let her husband send their children away to traumatise them. If she really did love them, she probably would've drawn the line somewhere and yet she didn't and was perfectly willing to let them both die, so no; despite what Marianne herself thinks, I believe that she was probably just lying to herself.


	10. Shadow Game Tasters part 1

**Euphemia of the Duel Academy**

**Shadow Game Tasters part 1**

**Disclaimer **– Code Geass is the property of Sunrise, Bandai Entertainment and Ichirō Ōkouchi and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is the property of TV Tokyo, NAS (Nihon Ads System), Studio Gallop, Kazuki Takahashi (the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga artist), 4Kids Entertainment (I mention this because I'm using the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub names) and most recently from the 25/26th June 2012 the 4K Acquisition subsidiary of Konami. Also some cards I'll be using will be based on characters from other TV shows, movies etc. Those characters are the property of their respective owners.

* * *

><p><strong>Warnings <strong>– Strong language, possible violence and possible Euphemia OOC (not a female Jaden).

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Summery<strong> – Since his capture and having his memories suppressed by his father, the Emperor, Charles zi Britannia, Lelouch Lamperouge a.k.a. Lelouch vi Britannia has been returned to "Area Eleven" and is living life as a normal student with no recollection of his previous life. However, bored with his life and knowing that something is off; Lelouch can't help but think back to the Black Rebellion and the massacre at the SAZ beforehand that acted as a catalyst for the rebellion. Also, rumours have been circulating over that Princess Euphemia's body mysteriously vanished from on board the Avalon while up in the air and Lelouch tries to theorise how it's possible. Meanwhile, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World, after Euphemia had defeated Amanda, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair hear about the Abandoned Dorm from Arenson and Sophia while telling ghost stories and Euphemia decides to go and investigate with Blair agreeing to take them there. However, all is not well as while en route to the Abandoned Dorm, Euphemia unintentionally acquires a golden medallion with the Eye of Anubis symbol and if that was not enough, Yumi ends up being kidnapped by an old adversary of Jaden's, backed by yet another of Jaden's old adversaries for the purposes of luring Euphemia into a trap. However, as Euphemia goes to help Yumi, yet another old adversary of Jaden's appears to prevent her friends from following her and Zukasu steps up to deal with the obstructive Trueman in a duel more real than any of them could ever imagine and where losing does not mean just losing with your Life Points. Can he defeat Trueman so that he and the others can go aid Euphemia or will everyone fall victim to the Shadow Game?

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><p><strong>Code Geass World – Tōkyō Settlement, "Area Eleven", Ashford Academy, Boys' Dorm, Lelouch's room<strong>

Lelouch Lamperouge sat on his bed in an upright position with his back pressed against his pillow, which was between his back and the bed's hardboard. He sat with his knees bent and his arms folded as he had long since given up trying to fall over to sleep. It was night outside, though unlike two nights previously, it was raining heavily outside and the only sound Lelouch could hear was the battering of raindrops against the glass. In fact, it was raining so heavily outside that if he had gone to his window and looked outside, if not for the fact that it was dark, then he would have seen the raindrops bounce off the ground. However, the weather was the last thing on the amnesic prince's mind at the moment. He honestly just could not fall over to sleep no matter how hard he tried, though he tried to place the blame on the raindrops beating against the window, he knew that that was only just an excuse for he had long since managed to drown out the racket of the assaulting raindrops on his window. No, the real reason he could not get to sleep was because his mind was just too full of thoughts as he remembered events of the past three months and needless to say, his thoughts were all in one big jumble.

He was Lelouch Lamperouge and he lived with his brother, Rolo and both attended Ashford Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in all of "Area Eleven". Three months previously, Princess Euphemia, former Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire had announced the formation of the Specially Administrated Zone of Japan in which "Elevens" could sign up and regain some of their rights and be called Japanese once again, but it had all been one carefully constructed ruse as during the opening ceremony, Princess Euphemia had apparently ordered a massacre, which in turn led to the Black Rebellion that was led by the masked terrorist known as Zero and his Order of the Black Knights, which was eventually finally quashed thanks to the efforts of Gilbert G.P. Guilford and the Glaston Knights. Most of the Black Knights had either been captured or killed and as for Zero himself, he was reported to have been executed and even now, things were still a bit hairy, though through all the chaos and confusion following the aftermath of the Black Rebellion, rumours over Princess Euphemia had started to fly around. According to those rumours, Princess Euphemia had apparently died and that her body had mysteriously gone missing from Prince Schneizel's personal flagship, the Avalon and several rumours had cropped up as to what happened from totally logical explanations to the outright bizarre.

Anyway, Lelouch could not help but ponder about his life and the state of affairs. All in all, he was just an average everyday student, though he was not very fit and cut out on PE classes, claiming that they were too strenuous for him and he cut other classes, finding them insufferably boring. In truth, boredom was pretty much the highlight of Lelouch's life. It was his final year of school and come the end of the semester, he would be expected to get a job and join the workforce. However, despite being tired of being a student, he did not think that he was suited to just getting a job and joining the workforce. It was not like he could ever hope to accomplish anything. No matter how well he did or how hard he worked, the nobility and the big corporations would still be above him and he would just end up being absorbed into the hierarchy of adults; just another cog in the machine that was the Holy Britannian Empire. It was the perfect world; a world in which everyone knew their place and did their part and no one dared even take a single breath out of line for the punishments for doing so were severe and may God help any poor sap who tried to rise above their social class. The attitude from those at the top could simply be described as "Know your place and stay there".

"How boring," Lelouch thought to himself, "Perfect world, hah. I guess what they don't tell you is that everything being perfect means stagnation."

That much, he did know. Despite the perfection that the Holy Britannian Empire exuded, the fact remained that life in the Holy Britannian Empire for its people had become rather stagnant. Nothing changed. Despite the Emperor's constantly ranting on and on about survival of the fittest and how progress was made through struggle and hardship, Lelouch could honestly say that he did not get it. Britannia had started a recent expansion that was still going on even to this day with the war with the EU with Britannian forces encroaching on more and more of the EU's territories. Lelouch honestly did not see the benefits of this "progress". He was still a student, he was still Lelouch Lamperouge. He honestly could never hope to get very far by joining the workforce. The nobility and the big corporation would not allow him to rise higher than a certain point.

"Hypocrite," he mused as he thought about the Emperor, "The Emperor's nothing but a hypocrite. Survival of the fittest, the strong survive and the weak perish, struggle promotes growth, it's all a lie."

He found his eyes widening as he found himself taken away at the amount of pure hatred and venom in his voice as he voiced Britannia's Social Darwinism rhetoric. He did not know why, but every time he thought about Britannia and its rhetoric, as well as the Emperor, it seemed to bring this seething hot fury that seemed to just come out of nowhere, especially when he thought of the Emperor. He did not know why, but Britannia's rhetoric somehow infuriated him and something about it just seemed to rub him the wrong way and in truth, it scared him somewhat. However, when he tried to think why he felt the way he did, his mind drew a blank. He could not find any reason whatsoever why he felt the way he did, or rather, whenever he believed he knew the answer, it would always slip from his grasp. All he knew was that he hated Britannia's rhetoric and he especially hated the Emperor. The Emperor seemed to bring out the most hatred in him and yet, he had only seen the Emperor on TV and had never met him in person. However, with the amount of hatred Lelouch felt for him, he could easily forgive people for believing that the Emperor had done something horrible to him.

"And why do I get the feeling that that's the truth?" he asked himself.

That was another thing. Despite not having met the Emperor before and therefore, the Emperor could not have done anything to him since he doubted that the Emperor knew he even existed, somehow, whenever he told himself that, it came off feeling as if it was a lie. He did get a sense of déjà vu whenever he saw the Emperor on TV and whenever he did, he felt his anger flare up like never before. His anger was so great that he knew if the Emperor had been present in the assembly hall while delivering his speech, then he would have attempted to kill him right then and there.

However, his mysterious hatred for the Emperor was just one of many things that plagued his mind. He had similar feelings towards many things; that certain things did not seem real and other things felt as if they were a lie. His entire life was an example. He was a Britannian orphan whose parents had died when he was still young and since then, he had taken it upon himself to look after and care for his little brother. However, whenever he thought back on those events, he could not help but feel a sense of indifference towards them and they did not seem real to him. In fact from the way he acted, it was as if he had read a story in a book and then taken on one of the characters' backstories as his own and he did not know why, but socialising with Rolo somehow felt wrong to him; like Rolo should not be there. He did not know why, but at times, he felt as if Rolo was not really his brother and had on occasion almost blurted out words like "fake" or "phony" whenever he thought of him and like his mysterious hatred for the Emperor, it terrified him since he did not know what it had come from.

However, one thing he was comfortable with was cutting class to go gambling; challenging members of the nobility to high-stakes chess matches in which he would always win and the nobleman would pay him a huge sum of money. That was the only thing he felt comfortable with as it helped stave off his boredom. It was because he was bored that he went on those frequent trips, sometimes with Rivalz and sometimes with Rolo, in which they would borrow Rivalz's bike. That was perhaps the only thing that did not in any way feel strange to him. He had been doing it for years, after all. However, whenever he thought about it, the outings themselves did not feel strange and the outings in the past did not feel strange. What did feel strange was his reasons for doing so. True, he could admit that staving off boredom was his main reason, but somehow, it felt as if that was not always the case. He felt that in the past, he had also done it for another reason entirely and that it was not always about combating boredom.

"Strange, just like the Black Rebellion," he thought to himself as he let his thoughts drift to the Black Rebellion, or rather, the months leading up to the Black Rebellion since Zero made his debut.

Zero had first made his appearance at the Court Martial of Private Suzaku Kururugi, an Honorary Britannian and former "Eleven" who had been accused of murdering Prince Clovis la Britannia, former Third Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire in Shinjuku in an incident involving poison gas in which some terrorists had apparently stolen a gas canister and had been chased into the ghetto in which they released it in an effort to take out their pursuers, but the residents of the ghetto were mostly the ones who made up the list of fatalities.

"All a lie," Lelouch spat with a growl.

That was another thing that irked him. Despite not being there, he somehow knew that it was a lie and that what had been mentioned was a cover-story invented to favour the military. That in itself was probably not a surprise since Lelouch had often come across soldiers executing "Elevens" while out in the Settlement and then hearing stories of how the soldiers had been defending themselves even when Lelouch knew that that clearly was not the case, but with Shinjuku, it was different. It was not so much as he suspected a military cover-up, but rather that, he knew it was a military cover-up and from the way he told himself that, it was as if he himself had been there and had seen what had happened first-hand. Sometimes he would hear the screams of a child echoing in his mind before being silenced by gunfire and not only that, but for some reason, he pictured his PE teacher, Miss Villetta Nu there as well and honestly, for the life of him, he could not understand why. Miss Villetta was a PE teacher, not a soldier, though he did admit that she did join the teaching staff after the Black Rebellion after the school reopened, though almost all of the student body with the exceptions of him, Rolo, Milly, Shirley and Rivalz had all remained in the Homeland. It was an entirely new student body altogether that attended the school now.

Anyway, for some reason, he felt as if he had been present at Shinjuku during the apparent military operation there, but if that was not enough, remembering being in the Student Council Clubhouse and witnessing Zero's debut on TV in which he managed to rescue Suzaku and somehow caused the leader of the now-defunct Pureblood Faction, Jeremiah Gottwald to go berserk and help him escape. However, like with his backstory, he felt the same feeling of indifference whenever he thought back to being in the clubhouse; it felt as if someone had told him about it. However, what was different about that and his backstory was that he knew that it had actually happened. However, the feeling was more along the sense that he had been there in person with Suzaku and Zero as well as Zero's mysterious accomplice who had aided him. Somehow, he knew that "Orange" was really nothing and had been something that Zero must have thought of in order to cause dissention and infighting among the authorities. He did know that there were several factions within Britannia's administration and that the administration had its share of internal problems and disagreements among those various factions were rampant. Zero had obviously known this and had invented "Orange" as a means of stirring up internal fighting. However, in the end, Jeremiah had to deal with a munity orchestrated by Kewell Soresi when Kewell tried to make it seem that "Orange" was just Jeremiah acting on his own rather than the entire Pureblood Faction, which ultimately proved to be a mistake since Princess Euphemia had gotten caught up in the crossfire and because they had put her little sister in danger, Princess Cornelia, who had just assumed the role of "Area Eleven's" acting Viceroy had demoted the Purebloods and reassigned them to the rare flank. In any case, from what Lelouch heard, Jeremiah had been driven insane and had perished at the battle at Narita.

"Again, why does that all feel like I know more than I should?" he asked himself, feeling really confused.

That was another thing that ebbed away at him. Thinking back on hearing about Zero's many escapades, he somehow got the feeling that he knew more than he should; like he had been right there on the battlefield when it had occurred. Somehow, he knew that Zero's failure at Saitama had been due to his subordinates panicking when Cornelia managed to gain the upper hand, somehow he could picture Jeremiah at Narita in his final moments ranting and raving like a lunatic in his final moments and somehow, he knew that at Port Yokosuka that General Katase and the survivors of the JLF had not committed suicide, but rather Zero had attached and detonated a bomb underneath the Sakuradite tanker that Katase and his men had been using as a make-shift hideout. Those incidents and more; somehow he knew things that he knew he shouldn't and like the mysterious hatred he seemed to have developed for the Emperor, it scared him. He was unsure why he felt the way he did. However, he just knew that what he thought of was true.

However, after an incident at Kyūshū's Fukuda Base in which former members of Japan's Kururugi Administration led by Atsushi Sawasaki had attacked in a bid to claim Japan in the name of the Chinese Federation; basically, it was an attempt by the Chinese Federation to wrest control of "Area Eleven" from Britannia and have Sawasaki act as their puppet leader; anyway, afterwards, Princess Euphemia had come to Ashford Academy during Milly's festival, probably looking for Suzaku, Lelouch guessed and it was there that she had announced the SAZ. However, for some reason, thinking of Princess Euphemia caused him to be overwhelmed with wave upon wave of sorrow for some reason and he could not help but feel a pang of what he could only describe as guilt and it sometimes reduced him to tears the more he thought about her; especially when it came to the massacre that she had carried out.

Princess Euphemia was perhaps one of the only royals Lelouch could honestly say he liked. Unlike her many half-siblings, who he would described as over-privileged, uncaring and overrated snobs and her full-blooded sister, Princess Cornelia being what Lelouch believed was an overly-glamorised kill-happy thug, Princess Euphemia was one of the nicest and kindest people one could meet. Apparently, she did not get with the Social Darwinism program and seemed kind to even nin-Britannians. Lelouch remembered how Nina Einstein described how during the Lake Kawaguchi incident in which a disgruntled member of the JLF named Lieutenant-Colonel Josui Kusakabe had hijacked the Annual Sakuradite Summit that had been taking place there and had taken everyone hostage. Anyway, Nina had a crippling xenophobic fear of non-Britannians, "Elevens" in particular and a guard had overheard her mumbling to herself, and she had used the word, "Eleven" and the guard had taken extreme offence to that and it resulted in Nina having a panic attack, but Princess Euphemia, who had been there in disguise had revealed herself to save Nina's life and since then, Nina had developed a rather unhealthy obsession over her. Anyway, Euphemia had seemed to have been a kind and caring person and had thought up of the SAZ, apparently in a bid to help the Japanese.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Before the opening ceremony, there was talk of whether or not Zero would show up and at first, it seemed that everyone had figured correctly when, during the televised broadcast that Zero's seat was empty, but then Zero came, riding a stolen Knightmare Frame that he had somehow acquired from Prince Schneizel and requested an audience with Euphemia alone. After that, they had disappeared for a while and then Princess Euphemia had emerged alone and then asked if the Japanese could die and somehow, despite the broadcast being cut, somehow Lelouch had a picture of Princess Cornelia's advisor, Andreas Darlton trying to talk sense into Princess Euphemia after she had gone and shot one of the Japanese in the crowd and then Princess Euphemia shooting him and saying something along the lines of "I have to kill the Japanese; get in my way and you'll share their fate" and that was when the massacre started.

"I'm sorry," Lelouch mumbled as his vision blurred and tears suddenly streamed down his face, apparently coming from nowhere.

Thinking of Princess Euphemia for some reason brought nothing but sorrow and guilt and Lelouch had found himself mumbling "I'm sorry" over and over again, though he just, for the life of him could not understand why. He did not know why he felt guilty over Princess Euphemia, especially considering that he had never met her in person before and therefore had done nothing that would bring on such feelings. However, like before, he somehow knew that to be a lie. He not only had the feeling that he had met Princess Euphemia before, but that he knew her rather intimately and not only that, but he also had this deep crippling feeling of foreboding dread that caused his blood to run cold whenever he thought of it and that was that he somehow believed that he, himself had ultimately been responsible for the SAZ Massacre. As ridiculous as it sounded, he was fearful that Princess Euphemia was innocent and that it was him that was responsible. In other words, he had somehow coerced Princess Euphemia into carrying out the massacre, but just how could that be? He was nowhere near the SAZ at the time and yet, like the feelings he got from all of Zero's escapades, he found himself knowing more than he should.

In any case, after the massacre had ended thanks to intervention from the Black Knights, Zero had rallied the angry Japanese under his banner and marched on the Tōkyō Settlement and thus started the Black Rebellion in which, the Black Knights had come relatively close to winning, but only lost due to Zero going missing. However, from official reports that were released to the public, Suzaku Kururugi had apprehended Zero and had been awarded with elevation to the Knights of the Round in which he had become the Knight of Seven, the first and perhaps only non-Britannian to do so and as for Zero, he was reportedly executed.

"Zero," Lelouch thought as he continued to fight the wave of tears that still spilled down his cheek from thinking about Princess Euphemia, "You were a fool, no matter how hard you try, you can't do it; you can't change the world. In the end, the Elevens just didn't have the strength."

However, even as those thoughts passed through his mind, he found himself disagreeing with them. Despite the fact that the Black Rebellion failed, Lelouch will concede that Zero had ultimately succeeded in one thing. He had succeeded in shattering the Holy Britannian Empire's aura of invincibility as the Black Knights had come so close to winning. Unfortunately, in the end, shattering Britannia's aura of invincibility had cost the "Elevens" greatly. "Area Eleven" had been demoted to a Correctional Area with the Britannians coming down hard on the "Elevens". The new Viceroy, a Duke by the name of Calares regularly broadcast the executions of "Elevens" on live television and kept rambling on how it was not discrimination, but instead, differentiation. Apparently, the "Elevens" he had executed were supposed criminals who committed heinous atrocities, but Lelouch suspected that that was a load of nonsense. Whenever he watched one of Calares's executions, he definitely could not recognise any of the faces of the "Elevens" that were executed and suspected that they were just innocents that Calares had sent his men to abduct from the ghettos and only executed them because they were "Elevens" and to spread fear among the natives in an attempt to scare the idea of resisting Britannian rule out of them; to try and teach them that resistance was ultimately futile and to Lelouch's horror, even children were executed and Calares had gave some excuse along the lines of "Even children can be deadly, don't underestimate their capacity to resist". That had repulsed a few people and then Calares started executing fellow Britannians, accusing them of sympathising with the "Elevens".

Anyway, somehow when it came to Zero's disappearance, Lelouch found himself going along with the notion that Zero had willingly abandoned his subordinates and when he wondered why he would do that, he found himself coming up with the notion that someone had discovered Zero's true identity and must have kidnapped a loved one, causing him to abandon his own rebellion and as it turned out, the Black Knights had been so reliant on Zero that when he disappeared, they had been unable adapt on how to handle the situation without him and the command structure of the Black Knights had collapsed leading to their defeat and why… all because someone kidnapped someone who was close to Zero, at least that's how Lelouch saw it. Using the enemy's loved one was an easy way to obtain victory. After all, no matter how battle-hardened or committed to a cause someone was, whenever their loved ones were involved, it always seemed to have the same effect in that if ones enemy was to target the person one cared about the most, then they could get them to do anything; even turn their backs on their followers.

"Gee, I wasn't even there and yet I'm coming up with weird theories," he said to himself.

However, even as he said that, he somehow knew that it was true and like everything else that he could not explain, it frightened him. He found himself feeling rather terrified of all the weirdness that seemed to surround his life recently. As for where he had been during the Black Rebellion, he honestly could not remember all that clearly. Every time he tried to remember, his mind came up blank, though he did remember that Black Knights had seized control of the school and had turned it into a make-shift base of operations and he remembered how, he, Rivalz, Milly and Shirley had escaped from where the students had been rounded up and had been caught and were about to be shot by a hot-headed "Eleven" that for some reason he identified as Shinichirō Tamaki and then the Avalon arrived, saving everyone. However, like many things, he found himself feeling nothing other than indifference and to him, it was like he was never really there to begin with and heard it from the others, though he was confused as to how he knew the name of the "Eleven" that had decided to defy Zero's orders and kill them. He also recalled how Suzaku had come in the Lancelot, Britannia's prototype Seventh Generation Knightmare Frame and Zero had set a trap for him that he had wondered into and the Black Knights had been in the process of trying to open the cockpit when they had gotten caught, but the commotion in getting caught had caused Suzaku to exit the cockpit in a bid to save them, but just as Tamaki had been about to kill him, Arthur the cat had come and bit Tamaki in the hand, distracting him long enough till the Avalon showed up, but then Nina emerged in the Ganymede, the Ashford Family's brainchild and a Third Generation Knightmare Frame, back before Knightmare Frames had been adopted for military applications. Unfortunately, the death of Princess Euphemia and the fall of the SAZ had driven Nina totally over the edge and in a mad bid to avenge the dead princess, she had constructed a nuclear bomb that would have been enhanced by Sakuradite had it gone off and Lelouch remembered hearing her demanding to know where Zero was and threated to detonate the bomb unless Zero showed himself, apparently too out of it to care that if she detonated the bomb then she would have killed millions of innocents. Fortunately however, Nina's bomb failed to detonate and Lloyd Asplund, who was in charge of Prince Schneizel's Britannian Special Research Division also known as Camelot had her arrested and flown back to the Homeland, though from Lelouch heard, Prince Schneizel had been intrigued with her considering that she was only seventeen and yet, she came up with rather complex scientific theories that had even some of the teachers at Ashford Academy wracking their brains and so, Prince Schneizel had brokered for her release and from what Lelouch gathered, she was in Dallas working for Prince Schneizel's nuclear research team, In Vogue, though from what Lelouch heard, Nina was still rather insane and many members on the team just plain refused to work with her and rumours were circulating that Nina had developed a rather kill-happy personality in which she had murdered those who badmouthed her to her face, though weather or not they were true or not, Lelouch could not say, though he hoped that they were not true, but from what he could remember of Nina, he honestly could say that he would not be surprised if it turned out to be true since Euphemia's death and subsequent disappearance had destroyed Nina's sanity in its entirety.

"Though, I do wonder how Princes Euphemia's body could have gone missing," he mused to himself as he knew that the body's disappearance had been a contributing factor to Nina's insanity.

According to the Emperor, Princess Euphemia had been declared solely responsible for the massacre and had been arrested, had her title and everything else stripped and then executed by the Britannian military, but Lelouch knew that this was not true. That was another thing that he could add to his lists of things that he knew more than he should. He knew that Zero had shot Princess Euphemia himself in order to stop her and as soon as those thoughts entered his mind, the pang of guilt returned more ferociously than before, like a knife that had been plunged right into his heart. Somehow, the knowledge of Zero shooting Princess Euphemia caused him the most pain and he suddenly felt another onset of tears coming along. He honestly could not understand it. Why was he feeling like this? It was like he was one who had shot Princess Euphemia and not Zero and then, another horrific thought entered his mind. What if he was Zero? This thought plagued him the most and no matter how much Lelouch tried to dismiss it, it just refused to go away. How could he be Zero? Zero had been captured and executed. There was no way the Emperor would let Zero live after what he had done, would he?

Shaking his head, Lelouch pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrated on Princess Euphemia's mysterious disappearance. He knew Zero had shot her; that much was obvious, though the Emperor only invented that cover-story probably as a means of appeasing the Britannian masses who had suffered during the Black Rebellion since they knew enough to know that it was because of the massacre that the "Elevens" had taken up arms and since they had been in the dark over the Princess's apparent plans, they had joined in with the Elevens in condemning her and Princess Euphemia had been given the name, Princess Massacre. However, since then, rumours had cropped up in the Homeland that Princess Euphemia's body had mysteriously disappeared from on board Prince Schneizel's Avalon and those rumours had quickly spread. Some of the theories that had been presented ranged from logical explanations such as the crew of the Avalon did not want her body on board and so ditched it somewhere to the outright bizarre, such as the supernatural, abduction by aliens and some even claimed that Princess Euphemia was still alive and was in hiding. Heck, one guy even claimed that he had Princess Euphemia's body in his basement, though that had turned out to be a hoax just like all those people he popped up in Zero costumes claiming to be Zero back from the dead, but they were quickly put down as they lacked Zero's charisma and strategic mind.

Anyway, Lelouch was unsure what to think. From what he heard, Suzaku had managed to evacuate Euphemia from the SAZ and had taken her aboard the Avalon while it was up in the air and had remained up in the air all that time and had not landed till it had returned to the Homeland and somehow, while the Black Rebellion was in full swing, Princess Euphemia's body had vanished without a trace. It just baffled Lelouch as to how it could have happened. He did not know the full story, but even he had to admit that pulling off such a spectacular feat just seemed impossible. There was just no way anyone could have gotten anywhere near the Avalon without being noticed. Lelouch was sure that the with the Avalon's surveillance equipment, it could probably detect a sparrow flying in the air at a range of twenty-five hundred metres. In other words, even birds could not fly by the ship without the crew on board knowing about it, though that was just mostly guesswork. He honestly had no idea what the range of the Avalon's surveillance was, but he knew that no one could have gotten near enough to the Avalon to infiltrate it. Any incoming craft or Knightmares would have been shot down. Nonetheless, still someone had managed to infiltrate the Avalon, steal Princess Euphemia's body and escape, completely unnoticed. The only explanation to that would be if the body snatcher had snuck on bored while the Avalon had still been on the ground at some point prior to that point, but the problem with that was that there would have been no way for them to have escaped unnoticed. It would have caused too much of a commotion and no doubt, even if they had managed to escape off the Avalon, the Avalon would have undoubtedly shot them down and yet, that did not happen either. It was as if Princess Euphemia's body had vanished into thin air.

"I just can't think of how anyone managed to pull it off, short of teleportation or the supernatural," he said to himself, "But that's impossible."

That much was true, he figured. There was no such thing as the supernatural and teleportation was impossible. There was just no way Lelouch could think of how anyone could have pulled it off. Even he, for all his strategic brilliance could not have hoped to have accomplished something so spectacular and he doubted that Prince Schneizel, who was the Empire's best tactician and strategist could have pulled it off either and he probably knew that ship like the back of his hand. No, the only theory Lelouch could come up with to explain it is that the crew had obviously gotten rid of the body for some reason and had come up with the disappearance story to avoid repercussions from the Imperial Family; if not from the Emperor, then definitely from Princess Cornelia and Prince Schneizel, though since the Black Rebellion, Princess Cornelia had been presumed dead, though her body had never been found.

Sighing to himself, Lelouch decided to have another try at trying to get back over to sleep. He did not know why, but for the past three months, his life just did not seem all that real. He was an average student and yet, somehow, he felt out of place; like he did not belong. He did not know what it was, but he knew that all the weirdness he felt was somehow tied into it all. His life the past three months just did not feel right. He was bored over how stagnant everything seemed and felt as if something was missing. He could not really explain it, but he felt it and no matter what he did, whether it be sit throw a boring lecture, chatted with his friends, heck even right now, sitting in his bed, he could still feel it; a pang that continued to pester his mind that everything these past three months had all been one big lie and it did not help matters that every now and then, he got the feeling that he was being watched; that someone was stalking him.

"Lies," he whispered to himself, "Everything's all just one big lie. I'm meant for so much more."

* * *

><p><strong>Yu-Gi-Oh! World – Shadow Realm<strong>

Titan screamed as he continued to fall into what could only be described a bottomless pit as he was encircled by row upon row of grey shadow blobs. Each blob had black triangular eyes with the top and bottom of their mouths formed into sharp jagged teeth and as Titan continued to fall, he could feel a few of them take bites out of his flesh and yet, despite falling for who knew how long, with the blobs devouring his flesh continuously nonstop since he first arrived, the chunks of flesh they had taken instantaneously regenerated and somewhere in Titan's terror-stricken mind, he was amazed that he was still alive. He could feel each bite from the horrid little blobs as they sank their teeth into his skin and rip the chunk of flesh from his body and needless to say, it was one of the most painful sensations he had ever felt. It felt like countless needles penetrating his body and his flesh being ripped off by a rabid animal.

"PLEASE HELP ME, SOMEONE, ANYONE!" he screamed for… in truth he had no idea how many times he had screamed for help as all his cries had gone unanswered and it was plainly obvious, even to him despite his panicked state that no one was going to help him, "I'LL DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING!"

By all rights, Titan knew that under normal circumstances, he should be dead. He gathered that it was whatever magic that governed the Shadow Realm that was keeping him alive through the constant pain he felt constantly writhing through his body and he knew that it was the Shadow Realm's magic that was causing his body regenerate the missing chunks of flesh that the blobs ripped from his body. In fact, Titan found himself wishing that he was dead. Death would have been more preferable than this constant torture. Every moment, his body was wrought with agonisingly unbearable pain and his mind had long since been overpowered by an overwhelming sense of horrifying terror. He honestly had no idea how long he had been falling as in his fear, time had seemed to slow down to a crawl. For all he knew, he could only have been falling for a matter of minutes, but then again, at the same time, years, centuries; even millennia could have passed in the real world. Each second to him felt like an eternity and he found himself growing increasingly desperate.

He supposed though that he had no one to blame for his current predicament other than himself. Before he had come to this point, Titan had been what was known as a duelling mercenary, a mercenary who was hired by clients to do things through duelling. However, before that, he had a job at a fairground, managing a ghost train ride. Unfortunately for him, his ride was just too scary and too realistic and many children had ended up traumatised by the experience and it ultimately cost him his job. However, he had gotten into Duel Monsters and had become fascinated with the stories surrounding the game; especially the stories relating to its origins in Ancient Egypt and its ties to seven mystical items known as Millennium Items, which were said to have the power to induce Shadow Games, which meant making the game more real and more deadly in which losing could be deadly. Whenever someone lost in a Shadow Game, they would be put through what was known as a Penalty Game by the winner and Penalty Games could range from relatively minor things such as an irritating rash that would never go away to permanent blindness, right up to death itself, though in some cases the Penalty Games were so terrifyingly horrific and so frighteningly painful and torturous that compared to them, death was a generosity, like the Penalty Game that Titan was experiencing at the moment.

In any case, Titan had become fascinated with Duel Monsters, Shadow Games and the Millennium Items and suspected that all the unusual events that happened over a decade ago surrounding Duel Monsters was all to do with the Millennium Items and he had for a time tried to seek at least one of them out. However, unfortunately, he learned that Yūgi Mutō had gone to Egypt and that during that trip the Millennium Items had all disappeared since he remembered in the past, seeing Yūgi wearing an upside down golden pyramid with an Egyptian style eye on the front. That had angered him as he had been hoping to obtain a Millennium Item so he could induce Shadow Games on his opponents just for thrills. However, rather than give up, Titan had settled that if he could not have a real Millennium Item, then he would make-do with a replica of one and he constructed his own replica of Yūgi's Millennium Item and using lights and electronics, he was even able to replicate the golden glow of the Millennium Items when someone activated their power. However, he also used the glow of the fake item to induce hypnosis on his opponents to trick them into believing that they were in a Shadow Game. It may not be the real deal, but it was close enough for Titan. Titan, however, was not his real name. It was more of an alias that he had taken on when he started as a mercenary and he chose the name, Titan due to his huge size and muscular body build since it gave him a rather intimidating appearance. He even wore a white mask over the upper portion of his face and the mask with similar to the mask of the Phantom of the Opera with two sharp points curving downwards at his cheeks to give the appearance of fangs. It definitely helped in the intimidation department.

However, unfortunately, after a few years of inducing countless people to fake Shadow Games, he had been called to Duel Academy for his latest job and his client had been a member of the faculty and from what Titan could gather from his appearance, it seemed to him that this person was rather unsure as to what gender they were, but he did not care about that, all he was interested in was his latest job. Anyway, the job was to scare a student by the name of Jaden Yūki. He was to scare Jaden so badly that he would flee the island and the faculty member even told him where Jaden would be; at an old abandoned dorm. As it turned out, the faculty member, whose name he remembered as Crowler had been right. However, he also noticed a girl with Jaden and his two friends, though when Jaden and his friends left her and went into the dorm where as she remained outside, Titan had abducted her and decided to use her as bait to lure Jaden to him and it worked and as he and Jaden duelled, for a while, he had the upper hand, but rather than being scared of his fake Shadow Game, the prospect of a real Shadow Game seemed to excite him. However, unfortunately Jaden somehow managed to figure out that his Shadow Game was a sham and destroyed his fake Millennium Puzzle, though he had believed that it had been called the Millennium Pendant, which Jaden had used to trip him up. Once he had been exposed, Titan had ended the duel and decided that it was not worth it, though he had been confused when Jaden accused him of kidnapping other students and he later learned that a group of students had gone missing in the dorm they were in and Jaden had clearly taken one of his comments out of context. Jaden did not believe in the Shadow Realm or the supernatural and Titan had mentioned on how the "others" did not believe in the Shadow Games either before he defeated them. When Titan said "others" he had been referring to his previous opponents, but Jaden had mistakenly believed he meant the disappeared students. In any case, unfortunately for him, the dorm had a trace of residual dark magic in the air that had attracted the spirits of the Shadow Realm and upon having his fake Shadow Game exposed, the spirits had interpreted it as mockery and in their anger had forced the duel to continue, only this time, it had been as a real Shadow Game and Titan remembered how one of the spirits had even possessed him in order to force him to continue the duel, though Jaden had been convinced that it was all part of the show and that he was still trying to convince him that his "powers" were real. Needless to say, Jaden won and Titan was put through a Penalty Game courtesy of the angry Shadow Realm spirits.

However, sometime later, his cries for help had been answered when an old man, whom he learned with Duel Academy's Superintendent, Kagemaru had agreed to release him in exchange for doing his bidding. Needless to say, Titan had been so desperate to escape that he did not care what he had to do, just so long as he could escape and Kagemaru had given him a new mask with the same Egyptian eye symbol as the Millennium Items, which he called a Shadow Charm, which like the Millennium Items had the power to induce Shadow Games, so basically, Titan finally attained his dream. However, according to Kagemaru, Titan was still technically a victim of a Penalty Game and that the power he had given him was what was protecting him from the Shadow Realm spirits. Once he lost that power, the spirits would reclaim him and unfortunately, the only way the spirits would allow someone to walk free from a Penalty Game was in exchange for another soul. So basically, he would only be safe from the Shadow Realm if someone took his place. Anyway, Kagemaru had recruited him to his group of Shadow Riders, who were after three cards known as the Sacred Beast cards, which were basically dark rip-off versions of the three Egyptian God Monsters. In order to obtain them, they needed seven keys called Spirit Keys that opened the Spirit Gates and each key had been entrusted to either a student or a faculty member and the keys could only be won in a duel, so his job was to duel the Key Keepers and obtain their Spirit Keys, not that he really cared what Kagemaru had planned; he just wanted to be free from the Shadow Realm and doing Kagemaru's bidding was just a step in that direction. Anyway, he chose to duel Alexis Rhodes, the girl he had kidnapped before to lure Jaden to him, intending on forcing her into being his replacement for the Penalty Game he had been put through and who was worried over her brother, Atticus, one of the students who had disappeared and who had been the first of the Shadow Riders to be defeated, though it was not Atticus himself who was defeated, but rather, Nightshroud, who had been in possession of Atticus, so Atticus was spared a Penalty Game. However, when Alexis explained about reasons why people duelled, Titan tried to dispirit her by labelling Atticus a hypocrite since he knew that Alexis probably learned her philosophy from him and claimed that Atticus had willingly given into the darkness to obtain power and for a while, despite Alexis's early lead, he had her doubting herself and her brother, but unfortunately for him, Alexis managed to overcome her doubts and went on to defeat him and with his defeat, he lost the protection of the power that Kagemaru had bestowed on him and the spirits of the Shadow Realm had reclaimed him and he was now back, falling down a bottomless abyss, surrounded by countless shadow blobs.

"So, you say you'll do anything, is that right, Titan?" a deep demonic voice boomed, seeming to echo from all around the former mercenary.

"Huh?" Titan said as he looked upwards.

There was always a light above him, a circular light that shone down on him and no matter how far he fell, the light did not appear to get further away, the distance between him and the light remained constant. It was as if the Shadow Realm itself was presenting him with a false sense of hope. The light, he knew was undoubtedly to symbolise a possible exit, but unfortunately, he could not reach it. He had tried before during the first time he was banished to grab hold of the blobs and climb up them to the "exit", but that had proven useless, as whenever he tried, they would always bite at his fingers, but even after he managed to ignore the pain, whenever he managed to successfully grab hold of one of the blobs, they would always liquefy, in other words, transform into liquid and found himself still falling and the light above him seemed to shine down on him mockingly, as if taunting him on his useless situation. He supposed it was the Shadow Realm's way messing with him, by giving him a false sense of hope, but always keeping it beyond his reach. He had long since learned that the hard way and somehow, he doubted if the light really represented an exit. Perhaps the "exit" was not real and even if he did somehow manage to reach the light, somehow he got the feeling that his hope would be shattered as he believed that it was probably just an illusion that the spirits of the Shadow Realm created just to mock and taunt him.

However, this time when he looked up, he was shocked and surprised to see a shadowy silhouette with a cloak over the top of their head staring down at him with dark glowing blue eyes, though the light from the eyes did illuminate a rather dim light underneath the cloak and the head underneath the cloak, though Titan could not be sure since he could not see all that clearly, the head appeared to be what he could only describe as a dragon's skull, though unlike a dragon, the snout was rounded rather than pointed and the two glowing orbs that were the creature's eyes were situated in its eye sockets.

"I say again, so you'll do anything?" the mysterious creature boomed once again.

"Yes, yes!" Titan said rather hurriedly in desperation, "I don't care what you want me to do, just give the word and I'll do it! I'll even get down on my hands and knees so you can rest your feet on my back like a footstool!"

That spoke volumes of his state of mind and the level of his desperation. So desperate he was to escape that he did not care what he had to do, even if it involved humiliating himself in the process. Heck, he would even go as far as ballet dancing down the streets of Domino in a tutu. Having people laughing at him and considering him a joke was more preferable than this Hell he was experiencing. Every second of his time in the Shadow Realm was agonisingly painful, every moment was an inescapable nightmare and he felt as if he had forgotten what fun and joy were for his mind had spent so long being dominated by horrifyingly terrifying fear for so long.

Anyway, the mysterious creature seemed to ponder his response for a moment before sending him a nod.

"Very well, Titan," it said as a shadowy skeletal hand reached out over the light above Titan and then a black mist appeared out of nowhere surrounding the creature's hand and then shot down towards the former mercenary, or rather, the former mercenary's mask and upon contact, the mist appeared to merge with the mask, which caused Titan to scream, "I'll give you a portion of my power, but in exchange, you will duel this girl and have her take your place. I'm well aware of your previous service to Kagemaru and like before, in order for you to be completely free from the shadows, someone must take your place."

Titan continued to scream as the black mist seeped into his mask and the pain that currently wrought his body only intensified immensely, casual him to shake and squirm. However, despite the unbearable pain he was experiencing, the creature's words did penetrate his pain-filled mind and looking up into the light, the transparent image of a girl with long pink hair and light purplish blue eyes appeared and Titan immediately knew that this was the girl that the creature wanted taken care of.

* * *

><p><strong>Duel Academy Island, Abandoned Dorm Ruins<strong>

It was a clear night on Duel Academy Island. The stars were out, twinkling in the sky, or at least, they would have been if not for the light of the full moon that shone down, bathing the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm and the surrounding area in a pure bluish white splendour. It was also quite calm with no so much as a light wind in the air. Yes, everything seemed quite pleasant and serene. Nothing stirred aside from the local nocturnal wildlife, but they were nothing to worry about as they just went about their normal business.

However, all of a sudden a fierce wind started to pick up that seemed to come from the entranceway down into the basement was left pretty much intact. However, the arrival of the wind caused the surrounding wildlife to flee as their sixth sense told them that there was something unnatural and evil about the wind. In any case the wind emerged from the entrance to the basement and started to spiral round the entire area, all the while increasing in ferocity, causing the branches of nearby trees to whip around in the air violently and the wind became so fierce that some branches even blew off the trees and were carried in the wind. However, as quickly as the wind came, it vanished and in the centre of the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm, a black mist suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started to take the shape of a huge muscular human figure and as soon as the mist had fully taken shape, it vanished and in its place stood Titan, who was now suddenly free from the Shadow Realm once again. However, anyone who recognised him, if they were to study him, then they would immediately realise that something was different about him; or rather, his mask. His mask was the same shape as before, but it was the colour that was different. Instead of its usual white colour, the mask had become a dark purple colour and there was a vertically-placed ovular red ruby situated on his forehead above his nose and between the eyes.

"Euphemia Felixton," he exhaled, taking his first breath of fresh air in over three years, "Or rather, Euphemia li Britannia. I'm coming for you."

Yes, that was the name of the girl that the mysterious demonic creature wanted him to defeat and in order to earn his freedom from the Shadow Realm, he was determined that he was going to do just that. He would duel and he would defeat this girl no matter what. The reason why the creature wanted rid of her did not matter to him. He was desperate and he did not care who ended up taking his place in the Shadow Realm, just so long as it was not him going back there. For that, he was willing to sacrifice an innocent soul just so he could be free.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, over at the Slifer Dorm's dining room, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair sat at one of the tables with a deck of Duel Monster cards sitting on the table between them. Also sitting on the table was a grey circular candleholder that curved upwards to a flat circle in which the candle sat with its flame dancing and flickering peaceful as it provided the light for the three girls. Euphemia had beaten Amanda Ribbets a.k.a. Amanda Varos earlier that day after she had confronted Euphemia and demanded that they duel because Amanda claimed that she had seen Euphemia before, but she could not remember where. However, Amanda held back because she wanted to draw the duel out for as long as possible so as to jog her memory, but Euphemia had pretty much dominated her and though Amanda had made a brief comeback, Euphemia was still able to win the duel and everyone had left Amanda to her own devices, clearly not wanting anything to do with her since she had kidnapped Abigail two days previously and that was still fresh in their minds.<p>

Anyway, Yumi sat with a Rocket Warrior card in front of her. Basically, the three girls were playing a game of telling ghost stories. The deck of Duel Monster cards between them were all monster cards of various levels and the object of the game was to draw a card and the level of the monster on the card determined how scary the story was obligated to be and it was Yumi's turn and she had drawn Rocket Warrior, which was a level-four monster.

"So one night," Yumi started as Euphemia and Blair listened intently in anticipation, "I'm strolling home, minding my own business, when suddenly, I notice a creepy haunted house across the road on the other side of the street…"

* * *

><p><strong>Yumi's Fantasy<strong>

Yumi was walking home and wearing the same clothes her real-life self was wearing when suddenly, she noticed an old house across the road that looked rather old and falling into a state of disrepair.

"_Curious, I go over to investigate_," Yumi narrated as her fantasy self did exact what she had said and opened the open and went inside and looked around, "_So, I naturally go in and look around and I eventually find myself in the bathroom_."

Yumi's fantasy self did look around, seeing that everything was rather old and laden dust that had been gathering for years. The carpets were all torn in certain bits and some of the floorboards were missing and one of the chair had a small tear in it with the sharp end of a spring stinking out, however, just as the real Yumi said, Fantasy Yumi went upstairs and made her way to the bathroom and found the door lying out in the hallway having been ripped off its hinges.

"_At that moment, nature calls, so naturally, I do my business_," Yumi continued to narrate, "_And afterwards, I'm in the process of washing my hands, when suddenly… a giant tarantula bursts out from the toilet seat and I try to run away, but the tarantula shoots silk at me, capturing me and then takes me down to the sewer to devour me_."

As Yumi narrated her story, Fantasy Yumi was in the process of washing her hands. However, like Yumi had narrated, a giant tarantula that was twice as big as Yumi herself and which was brown and yellow in colour burst out from the toilet seat, completely destroying it, causing Fantasy Yumi to turn and seeing the tarantula, her eyes widened in horrified fear as she felt as if her blood had turned to ice and the colour immediately drained from her face in an instant. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sound apparently had died in her throat as no sound came.

"Hi," the tarantula greeted in a sinister tone.

It was then that Fantasy Yumi seemed to find herself again and immediately turned and bolted for the exit, but like Real-life Yumi had narrated, the tarantula straightened its legs, rising up and then brought its abdomen underneath it and aimed its spinnerets at Fantasy Yumi's feet and then fired out a line of silk and wrapped itself round her right ankle and then the tarantula disconnected the silk from its spinnerets, grabbed the line after righting its abdomen and pulled the line towards itself, causing Fantasy Yumi to fall over on her front and as she was dragged off, she found herself clawing at the floor in an effort to stop herself from being dragged away.

* * *

><p><strong>Real World<strong>

Back in the Slifer Dining Hall, Yumi had jumped onto the floor and started clawing at it, apparently having gotten so into her story that she was acting it out.

"No please!" Yumi screamed in a genuinely horrified tone, "Not tarantulas, anything but tarantulas!"

However, noticing a shadow looming over her brought her back to reality and she found Euphemia staring down at her with humorous grin on her face, indicating that she was trying her best not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" the Japanese girl asked as she picked herself up, feeling rather offended that her best friend found her story funny.

However, Yumi's story did succeed in scaring Blair as she had gotten up from her seat and had bolted underneath the table behind her with her knees on the floor and her hands over her head in a slightly curled up position.

"Tarantulas aren't scary," Euphemia said simply, "I'll admit, they do look scary at first glance, but they don't go out of their way to bite people. Just so long as you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone."

"Tarantula's aren't scary, huh?" Yumi said, feeling a bit dispirited and also a bit miffed as it felt as if Euphemia was mocking her, "Not even giant-mutant, man-eating, sewer-dwelling tarantulas?"

"Giant-mutant, man-eating, sewer-dwelling tarantulas; where do you come up with this stuff?" Euphemia laughed as Yumi let out a dissatisfied groan, "Tarantulas mainly live in jungles, rainforests and deserts. I highly doubt that there's a species that dwells in sewers."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Yumi replied with a dispirited groan of displeasure as she thought over what Euphemia had said, "Only a complete and utter wimp would be afraid of that."

"Thanks a lot," Blair complained in a not-so-pleased tone as she came out from underneath the table, feeling rather insulted at the Japanese brunette's comment.

"Still, mid-level scare for a mid-level card," Euphemia went on and she and Yumi both ignored the pre-teen bluenette and Euphemia took the Rocket Warrior card and placed it to one side and then brought her hand over to the deck and placed her index and middle fingers on top, "As for me, I'm hoping for a high-level."

She then drew the card as both Yumi and Blair, who had returned to her seat look on in anticipation and crossed their fingers, hoping that Euphemia would not draw a high-level card that would make her story too scary. However, Euphemia drew and turned the card over, revealing it to be, Barrel Dragon, a level-seven monster.

"Wow, that's a level-seven monster," Blair said in awe and fear, "Can I go to bed now?"

Euphemia then let out a mockingly sinister chuckle and had a rather cliché evil-looking grin on her face.

"What's the matter, Blair?" Euphemia mocked as she produced a flashlight, seemingly out of nowhere and switched it on while placing it in front of her underneath her chin, shining the light on her face, "You're not scared are you?"

She then followed her comment up with a stereotypical and rather cliché evil laugh, causing Yumi and Blair to both almost jump out of their skin. Both had to admit that despite Euphemia's act of shining the flashlight on her face from underneath her chin being rather cliché, it was still quite effective. The angle of the flashlight seemed to cast a shadow over parts of her face.

"I have a story that is quite suited for a level-seven monster," she went on in her sinister tone, "Well; actually, I just thought it up off the top of my head."

"Uh huh, go on," Yumi said in a daring tone in a bid to prove that she was not scared.

"Yumi, don't encourage her!" Blair said in a stunned tone; stunned that Yumi was daring their pink-haired friend to go on.

"Come on, Blair, how scary can her story be, I mean, my tarantula story wasn't really all that scary," Yumi said with a shrug.

"It was to me," the bluenette grumbled, still feeling rather miffed at Yumi's earlier comment on her only a wimp would be afraid of her story.

"Okay, here goes, I call this story, the Tale of Princess Massacre," Euphemia went on, still shining the flashlight on her face, "You see, in a land far, far away, there was this empire that was dedicating to taking over the world and as such, they sent their military to conquer foreign lands."

"What's the name of this evil, world-conquering empire?" Blair asked curiously, feeling somewhat surprised at Euphemia's story as she did not find anything scary about an empire devoted to conquest.

"I'm not sure, exactly," Euphemia replied as she seemed a bit lost in thought for a few seconds, "Okay, let's just call this empire, Evillia."

"Evillia, how cliché, it's obvious that it's evil with a name like that," Yumi said, trying hard not to laugh.

"Just who's telling the story anyway?" Euphemia shot back and she put the flashlight on the table and placed her hands on her hips as she glared at her friend, sounding a tad bit insulted, though she had to admit that Yumi had felt the same way when she laughed at her story, so she found herself content in believing that Yumi deserved a measure of revenge.

"The shoe's on the other foot now, eh, Euphie-chan," Yumi said in a taunting tone before becoming serious, "Anyway, please continue."

"Okay," Euphemia went on as she picked the flashlight up and placed underneath her chin like before, "Anyway, The Empire of Evillia was dedicated to war and conquest and conquered the land wherever they went. However, one day, one of the Emperor's wives was assassinated…"

"Wives?" Blair interrupted in confusion.

"You mean that the Emperor has a harem?" Yumi asked, bringing her hand to her mouth as she tried her hardest not to burst out laughing.

"Yes, he has a hundred and eight wives," Euphemia said, clearly not appreciating the fact that she was interrupted, though even as she said this, she could not help but get a feeling of déjà vu from it; like she knew of something similar to her story and was drawing on it as inspiration for her story.

"A hundred and eight wives, what the hell is he, a sex machine?" Yumi said as she burst out laughing and Blair joined in and Euphemia just glared at them both, clearly upset at being interrupted, though it did distract her from her thoughts.

"If I may continue," she said in a serious tone and both other girls stopped laughing.

"Sorry, please go on," Yumi said with a snigger as she still found her own sex machine comment funny.

"Anyway, one of the Emperor's wives is assassinated and his daughter is caught in the crossfire and so, the Princess's brother goes to their father and demands to know why he hasn't done anything, only to be blown off and when the Prince lashes out in anger, telling his father exactly what he thinks of him to his face, the Emperor decides to banish him and his sister to the land Sakuraditia, which he was already planning on invading. However, after the invasion, the Prince and Princess survive and the Prince vows vengeance against his father and vows to take down Evillia and so, he fakes his and his sister's deaths and both of them going into hiding. Seven years later, the Prince gets caught up in a battle between resistance fighters and Evillia forces and ends up receiving the power to hypnotise people and get them to do what he wants."

"Wow, freaky," Blair said in awe, "Just how did the Prince get this hypnotic power?"

"I haven't thought of that," Euphemia replied honestly, "But please bear with me, anyway, once he gets this power, he helps the resistance beat the Evillia forces and in the process, kills his half-brother, who's Viceroy of Sakuraditia and he becomes a masked terrorist known only as Zero."

"Zero, what, as in nothing?" Yumi asked curiously.

"Yes," Euphemia said with a nod, though for some reason, the name Zero did seem familiar to her and it seemed an appropriate name to give the Prince's rebel identity, "Anyway, after the Viceroy's death, the prince's older half-sister, who's a military general is selected to replaced and she comes with her full-blooded sister, who becomes Sub-Viceroy and who is one of the most kindest and gentlest people one could meet and who doesn't get with Evillia's program and after a string of confrontations between the Military Princess and Zero, the Sub-Viceroy, who met up with the prince beforehand and discovered his true identity decides to help the people of Sakuraditia and announces the establishment of a specially administrated zone or SAZ for short."

"Specially Administrated Zone, you mean like Hong Kong or the Indian Reservations in America?" Blair asked curiously.

"If you mean an area that's technically part of a country, but has a separate administration more or less independent of the country's main government, then yes," Euphemia replied with a nod, "Anyway, she announces the SAZ, but for the Prince, this presents a problem. You see, his main reason for fighting is revenge and with the SAZ, he loses his excuse for fighting and so in a bid to preserve his reasoning, he decides that he'll sabotage the opening ceremony and use his hypnotic power to have his own half-sister shoot him and stage his own assassination, but while he's in the process of explaining that to her, he suddenly takes on a massive headache and then as the Sub-Viceroy goes to aid him, he explodes in anger. However, as it turned out, the Sub-Viceroy had renounced her title as that was the price for establishing the SAZ, but she had done so without hesitation and explained that she had done it for the Princess, the Prince's sister as the Princess had told her that all she wanted was to be with her big brother and nothing else mattered to her. However, unfortunately, just as it seemed they had come to a compromise with the Prince agreeing to amend his plan, he was in the process of explaining his hypnotic power to her when, all of a sudden, it activated on its own and his example to her was that if he told her to kill all the natives of Sakuraditia, then she'd do it no more how she felt about it. Unfortunately, that was misinterpreted by his power as a command and when the Prince realised this, it was too late. The Sub-Viceroy then went out and started a massacre and the Prince was forced to kill her since he saw no other way to stop her and so, with a heavy heart, the Prince killed her, which was unfortunate as next to his full-blooded sister, the Sub-Viceroy was the one he was closest to and afterwards, she was branded with the name, Princess Massacre as no one knew the truth and as for the Prince, his only option had been to fall back on his original plans."

"Sounds more like a tragedy than scary story," Yumi said, though she had to admit the idea of a kind and gentle soul being hypnotised into a mad-axe murderer was a terrifying thought and she did not know why, but somehow she feared something like that happening to Euphemia as whoever this sub-viceroy was, it was clear that Euphemia had based her off herself.

"Man, that's scary," Blair thought with a shudder.

"Yeah, especially since the Sub-Viceroy ran out onto the stage and asked for all the all the natives to die in a rather casual tone," Euphemia said with a shudder of her own, but suddenly, her eyes widened as a strange sensation come over her, "And the speech goes something like this, "For those of you who call yourselves Japanese, I have a favour to ask, could you all die please?""

"Huh, Japanese?" Yumi asked in confusion as she shot her friend a confused look and she did not know if it was her imagination or a trick of the light, but for looking into Euphemia's eyes, she could have sworn she saw a rather eerie reddish orange glow flickering round her irises, "Euphie-chan, are you feeling alright?"

"Huh, what, what'd I just say?" Euphemia said in confusion as she shook her head, though when Yumi looked into her eyes, the strange glow was gone.

"You just said, Japanese," Blair answered, also looking confused, "You said Japanese instead of natives of Sakuraditia."

"Did I?" Euphemia said, looking even more confused than before and not only that, but the two other girls also detected a hint of fear in her tone; like she feared that what she said was true.

"Maybe it's because Sakuraditia has the word, Sakura in it, which is a Japanese word," Yumi suggested.

"Yeah… that's probably it," Euphemia said with a nod, though from the sound of her voice, it was clear that she was still quite shaken and not totally convinced of the Japanese girl's suggestion, "To be perfectly honest with you, I really have no idea where that story came from, I just seemed to think of it off the top of my head."

Of course, that was not totally true. Somehow the pinkette knew that she had gotten her story from somewhere, though she could not remember where. Thinking about it, something just did not seem right about it. The way the events of her story had come to her, it was as if it was a true story and she was just changing the names. Of course, she did not use names, but of all the characters she had thought of, she could easily place herself in the Sub-Viceroy's shoes as she had based the Sub-Viceroy off herself. She somehow felt as if she could relate to her the most. What she had attempted to do; Euphemia knew that she would have probably tried the same thing had she been a princess of a world-conquering empire, though thinking of that filled her with a feeling of pure and absolute dread. Somehow, that notion felt quite real to her, like she really was a princess and it brought her back to the day she and Yumi first arrived at Duel Academy when Yumi had suggested that she was a princess in a past life and for some reason it her filled her with this terrifying notion that had caused her to hastily dismiss Yumi's claim and she somehow got the feeling that it had been true. She remembered earlier that day during her duel with Amanda when she overheard James jokingly state that she was a mad-axe murderer and then Yumi, in her counter-rant mentioned something along the lines of massacring an entire race, which was what the Sub-Viceroy had unwillingly tried to do. Somehow, thinking of that just terrified her and she came off feeling, not only that something like that had actually happened, but also that she was somehow involved.

"Euphie-chan," Yumi said, looking at her friend in concern, knowing that she was lost in her thoughts again.

She supposed that it had something to do with her strange amnesia and her own story must have triggered something, but what? Looking at Euphemia, she could see that not only did she not remember her own slip-of-the-tongue comment, but the fact that it was a slip-of-the-tongue seemed to shake her somewhat and it made the Japanese girl feel concerned for her friend. Thinking about it, she remembered how James made a joking comment earlier during Euphemia's duel with Amanda about her being a mad-axe murderer and she had became upset and told him not to make it sound like Euphemia had started to massacre a race of people, which by coincidence the character of the Sub-Viceroy in Euphemia's story had done, albeit not of her own freewill and what made that striking was that Euphemia had based the character of the Sub-Viceroy off herself and not only that, but also she remembered her comment of how Euphemia had been a princess in a past life had somewhat scared her when they had first arrived at Duel Academy, though at the time, she had dismissed it since Euphemia seemed to have recovered fairly quickly. There was also the issue of Euphemia's slip-of-the-tongue comment in which she had accidently said, Japanese and that had confused, not only her, but she could tell that Euphemia had been just as confused and knew that it was probably of those comments that she had made and then not remembering saying. However, unlike before, Yumi could detect a hint of fear in her friend; that she had made the comment and not remembered saying it and that the fact she did not remember saying it is what terrified her. However, from the fear apparent in Euphemia's voice, it was as if what she had said was true despite not remembering saying it and that was what scared her.

"Ho, ho, ho," a new voice laughed in a somewhat sinister tone, interrupting the Japanese girl from her thoughts, "May we partake in this fright-fest?"

All three girls almost jumped out of their skins and Blair accidentally tipped her seat over, causing her to fall on her back. Euphemia looked behind her, where the voices had come from and relaxed when she saw that it was only Thomas and Sophia Arenson, the Headmaster and Headmistress of the Slifer Dorm along with their huge grey Great Dane, Greyfang, who wore a blue collar with a leash attached at the top, which Sophia held.

"How's it goin', girls?" Sophia said as she raised her hand in a greeting gesture.

"Like I said before, may we join in on the fright-fest?" Arenson repeated.

"Well I say that you already have," Yumi said after she recovered.

"Yeah, you unannounced greeting almost scared the pants off us," Euphemia said as she also calmed down.

"Yeah, don't creep up on us like that," Blair put in as she picked herself up and fixed her seat so that it was in the right position, "Anyway, since you're here, why not try drawing a card?"

"Huh, draw a card?" Sophia said curiously as she raised a curious eyebrow.

"It's a game we're playing," Yumi explained.

"We're telling ghost stories, but before we do, we draw a card and higher the level of the monster on the card, then the scarier the story has to be," Euphemia finished.

Arenson chuckled as he reached out to draw a card.

"Okay, if that's how it goes, then let's see what level I'll draw," he said as he drew a card and turned it over and Yumi and Blair's eyes widened as they saw that it was the Five-Headed Dragon, a level-twelve monster and not only that, but with five thousand attack and defence points, its card displayed the highest number of attack and defence points on a card without any enhancements.

"That's a level-twelve monster," Euphemia commented, looking more intrigued than scared, "Guess we'd better get ready for nightmares, huh, girls?"

"C-can I go to bed now?" Blair said, repeating her earlier question from when Euphemia drew her card.

"Yeah, we have classes in the morning and it's past our bedtimes," Yumi agreed, sounding nervous as she clearly did not want to hear a really scary story.

"What's wrong, girls?" Sophia asked in a mockingly sinister tone, "Don't you want to hear about the Abandoned Dorm at the other end of the island?"

"Abandoned Dorm, wait, you don't mean that dorm that involved all those disappeared students, do you?" Blair asked curiously, though she herself knew what had happened as she had been there the previous year when the mysterious disappearances of the students were finally given closure.

"Wait a second," Yumi said, her own curiosity being piqued, "Earlier on, I heard that all those students had returned, but that the general public still believe them to be missing, is that true?"

She did recall eavesdropping on Chancellor Sheppard and Dr Crowler while they were dealing with Amanda after she had been apprehended by the Academy's Disciplinary Action Squad after she had kidnapped Abigail, only for her father to call and practically blackmail the two faculty members into dropping the charges against his daughter. However, she remembered Chancellor Sheppard mentioning that the disappeared students had all returned, though officially, only two had officially returned. She believed that the students had vanished and that Duel Academy was covering it up and claimed that those students who had disappeared had been studying sabbatical abroad, but when their families had demanded to know which schools they were attending, Duel Academy had refused to tell them.

"Well, you see, girls, it's more complicated than that," Arenson said with a sigh, "Since my wife and I are relatively new here, we don't know the complete picture, but we have been briefed on most of what happened."

"And what did happen?" Euphemia asked, as she too was curious as to the truth of disappeared students since she did recall Jaden telling her something about an incident that had occurred a year before he had enrolled.

"Well, I'm not really sure, but apparently, there were two separate incidents of students disappearing," Sophia said as her husband took a break from talking, "The first incident was a lone student by the name of Yūsuke Fujiwara a few months before the others all disappeared en masse."

"Huh, what, hold up, are you saying that there were two separate incidents?" Yumi asked, completely surprised by this revelation, "I know of Yūsuke Fujiwara, he was the student who reappeared just last year near the end of the semester. I heard that he pulled out and has become rather reclusive."

"That's right, you see, the reason the two incidents were believed to have been one complete incident was because young Yūsuke has no surviving relatives," Arenson said as his wife took her turn in taking a break from talking, "Both his parents died when he was very young and they had no surviving relatives either, so, young Yūsuke's all alone. Anyway, I will say this much, he made an awful lot of friends during his time at Duel Academy, but the events leading up to his disappearance, he started exhibiting rather strange behaviour. He became rather cold and suddenly started distancing himself from all his friends. However, I understand that Atticus Rhodes, one of his friends followed him on the day of his disappearance and was found in the dorm's basement, which is said to be an old cavern that was used in ancient times to conduct strange dark rituals. However, unfortunately whatever it was that Atticus had seen, it caused him to develop a case of amnesia."

"Atticus Rhodes," Euphemia pondered curiously, "Wasn't that the name of the student who was known to have returned three years previously?"

"Yes, that's right," Sophia said, looking at Euphemia with a raised eyebrow, "How'd you know that?"

"You forget that Jaden Yūki was the one who recommended that I enrol in Duel Academy," Euphemia replied, "And I spent two months before enrolling here in his company and apparently, he's good friends with Atticus's sister, Alexis."

The mention of Alexis caused Blair to cringe as she was still rather in love with Jaden and was still a bit upset over losing him to Alexis.

"I see," Sophia said with an accepting nod.

"Boy, this is a coincidence, isn't it?" Yumi said in an intrigued tone, "Two separate incidents of students disappearing with the first going unreported and all because Duel Academy believes that just because the boy that disappeared has no living family that no one would care about him. However, if what you've said is true, then his friend obviously must've seen something, but the trauma of the experience caused his brain to suppress the memories of the experience; he ends up going missing a few months later and reappears a year later and then his friend; the first one to disappear reappears only last year. The two who officially returned were once close friends, I find that too convenient to be a coincidence."

"That's not fair," Arenson said, glaring at Yumi, "Duel Academy did care about young Yūsuke and for your information, they did try to get to the bottom of it. However, they hadn't much to go on and the only person that could've told them anything had unintentionally blocked the experience from his mind."

"Anyway, the other students all disappeared en masse," Sophia spoke up, before Yumi could reply as she detected that an argument was imminent, "Neither Tom nor I know the details, but we were told that our predecessor as Slifer Dorm Headmaster, Lyman Banner is suspected of being involved in their disappearance."

"What happened to him?" Yumi asked curiously, momentarily forgetting about anger over her belief over Duel Academy's treatment of Yūsuke Fujiwara.

"Well, that's yet another mystery," Arenson said, making it clear that he also wanted to know that, "You see, when Atticus first reappeared, he had fallen into coma and not long before he recovered, Professor Banner mysteriously vanished and hasn't been seen since. It was Atticus who made the accusation. According to him, Banner had told him and a few other students to meet in the Abandoned Dorm's basement to undergo a test, but when they did, that when they disappeared."

"I will admit, that it could just be a misunderstanding," Sophia spoke up, "It could be that Banner was innocent, but considering that he disappeared not long before Atticus awoke from his coma… it does raise a few eyebrows and does not help his case. Unfortunately, no one has seen head nor tail of him since then. It's as if he's vanished off the face of the Earth."

"Wow, that's scary," Euphemia whispered to herself with a shudder as she had to admit that it was a bit frightening how someone could just up and disappear, never to be seen or heard from again, especially considering that he was a suspect in a mass kidnapping.

"You don't suppose he was silenced, do you?" she said, speaking aloud, "You know, perhaps he was not the main instigator and was just a lackey and when one of the kidnapped victims reappeared, he's superiors panicked and had him killed to ensure his silence."

"I admit that that is probable," Arenson said with an accepting nod, "There are people in the criminal underworld who know how to eliminate someone and dispose of the body in such a way that guarantees that it'll never be found. However, rumours also circulated that the students' disappearance had something to do with Shadow Games."

"Shadow Games?" Yumi said curiously as she knew of Duel Monsters and its origins in Ancient Egypt.

"You see, girls, Shadow Games are duels played using mystic item known as…" Sophia started to say

"Let me guess, Millennium Items, right?" Yumi interrupted in a rather uninterested tone, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard all the stories about Shadow Games and the Millennium Items, but they're all a load of garbage. The supernatural doesn't exist."

"Huh?" Blair, who had been silent this whole time said, "What, you mean that you don't…"

"Of course I don't," Yumi replied, interrupting the preteen before she could finish as she shook her head, "The supernatural is just a load of hogwash that people invented in ancient times in order to explain how everything worked because they were too primitive to figure it out for themselves."

However, Arenson only chuckled at this, causing the Japanese brunette to groan and for some reason, she could not help but feel a twinge of fear worming its way into her mind.

"Yes, that's what most people say," he said dismissively, "However with all legends, despite the majority of them being just fantasy, there's mostly always a grain of truth in them somewhere."

"Yes, thank you, Arenson-sensei, I'll keep that in mind," Yumi said in an irritated tone, not likely the way he dismissed her claims.

"Anyway, regardless of what really happened, at the end of the year following their disappearance, all the disappeared students aside from Yūsuke all returned," Sophia explained as her husband once again took a break from talking, "However, it was so near the end of the semester and despite the rumours, no one really knew who the missing students were as there were other students who were really studying sabbatical abroad, they were able to slip back into society completely unnoticed."

"Really?" Yumi said, sounding sceptical as it was clear that she did not believe the headmistress, "And what about the disappeared students families, huh? I heard that they had gone and demanded to know where their children were, but Duel Academy clammed up and refused to tell them anything."

"To be perfectly honest with you, Miss Fujiharu, before my wife and I came here, we both believed that as well," Arenson said in an "as-a-matter-of-fact" tone, "And when we first arrived, we both confronted Chancellor Sheppard about it. However, as it turned out, that was just a big misconception."

"A misunderstanding?" Euphemia asked, putting in her two cents, "How could it possibly be a misunderstanding?"

"What, do you honestly think that Chancellor Sheppard would be heartless enough to keep the families of the disappeared students in the dark over the status of their loved-ones, do you?" Sophia asked, sounding rather appalled as she glared at the pinkette, "Of course not, he told them everything he knew. However, he did swear them to secrecy and it was the fact that they were sworn to secrecy that led to the rumours that Duel Academy refused to tell them anything when they inquired about the status of their children."

"That's right," Arenson agreed with a nod, "I will admit, at first, we were sceptical, but Chancellor Sheppard invited us to get in contact with those families to see if his story checked out and even gave us their contact details and I did check up on one family and they confirmed what Chancellor Sheppard told me and not only that, but I even spoke with their son, one of the disappeared students."

"However, because the students managed to quietly slip back into society, the rumours that they're still missing still persist," Sophia went on, picking up from where her husband left off, "And I understand that last year, a group of students went missing in an unrelated incident. However, all but two of them returned."

"Oh, I see," Yumi said with an apologetic sigh, feeling rather low that she had jumped to conclusions and vilified Duel Academy in their handling of the disappeared students and she could tell just by looking into their eyes that both Arenson and his wife were telling the truth; plus they sounded way too convincing for what they said to have been lies, "Gomenasai, Arenson-sensei, Arenson-san."

At that moment, Greyfang, who had just been standing around watching his master and mistress's discussion with the three Slifer girls opened his mouth and let out a really wide yawn.

"Well, I think that that is our cue to head on to our rooms," Sophia said as she noticed the dog's yawn, "Take care, you three."

"And don't stay up too late," Arenson said with a hint of seriousness in his tone, "You three have classes in the morning."

They both then turned and left.

"Later," all three girls said in unison as their Headmaster and Headmistress both left.

* * *

><p>Outside the dining hall and behind a tree, unbeknownst to the three girls or the two faculty members, Jaden stood with a rather troubled expression on his face as he had heard everything that had been discussed and he had heard Euphemia's story and he knew that basically it was an edited version of the SAZ Massacre that Lelouch had unintentionally forced her into carrying out back in her own world. However, he had to admit that listening to the girls and their stories did bring back memories. He remembered round about this time during his first year, though it had been on the night of the day he had taken the Promotional Exams that he Syrus and Chumley all played the same ghost-story telling game in which they would draw a monster card and the higher the level, the scarier the story had to be and he remembered how Syrus had drawn Earthbound Spirit and told a story in how he had wondered into a cavern and found a Dark Magician card in the centre of the lake and as he reached out to grab it, a hand shot up and dragged him into the lake and like Yumi, he had gotten so into his story that he had started to mistake it for reality. However, unlike Euphemia, he had drawn Sinister Serpent, a level-one monster and so he did not get to scare them at all and for the story, he recounted how at night when he was a child, he would hear the voices of the spirits of his cards, but whenever he went to investigate, they would always retreat back into their cards. However, back then Jaden had did not believe in the supernatural, though he did admit that since enrolling in Duel Academy he started to hear the "mysterious voices" again.<p>

"And it seems that Euphie can also hear them as well," he said to himself, "I knew that she had the power to see Duel Monster Spirits, though like me back then, she doesn't know it yet. I just wonder what will be the catalyst that will awaken her ability fully."

For him, it had been his duel with Titan, the duelling mercenary that had induced a false Shadow Game on him. Up until then, he could only hear his Winged Kuriboh and after his duel with Dr Crowler, the card image had winked at him, however, it was his duel with Titan in which his ability to see and communicate with Duel Monster spirits had fully awakened when Winged Kuriboh first appeared to Jaden as an orb of golden light after one of Titan's attacks left him feeling a bit disorientated and it was only when he made an offhand comment about how the orb was trying to hypnotise him that he suddenly realised that Titan's Shadow Game was a sham and he had used his Elemental Hero Avian card to destroy his fake Millennium Puzzle and managed to trip Titan up when he referred to it as the Millennium Pendant instead of the Millennium Puzzle. However, after Titan ended the duel and tried to leave, the spirits from the Shadow Realm that had made the Abandoned Dorm their home had become rather infuriated at Titan's fake Shadow Game and had interpreted it as an insult and had forced the duel to continue, only as a real Shadow Game.

Of course, back then, Jaden remembered that he had initially believed that Titan was still trying to convince him that his powers were real and did not believe that it was real Shadow Magic. He even recalled how Titan had been swarmed by a horde of grey blobs and one of them had entered his body through his moth and then Titan had addressed him in a somewhat deeper voice and glowing red eyes, though Jaden had believed that it had just been red contact lenses when in truth, Titan had been possessed in order to force him to continue with the duel. However, just when it seemed that those blob monsters were about to do the same to him, he had been surprised to see Winged Kuriboh come out from his deck. However, when Winged Kuriboh emerged, it was a real Winged Kuriboh and he was solid and he warded off the blob monsters. Needless to say, Jaden won, though even then he had believed that everything had all been a part of Titan's show, but since then he found that he could see Winged Kuriboh and communicate with his monsters, though unlike the first time, Winged Kuriboh's form had been transparent whenever he appeared in the human world. It was not till much later in the year when Jaden finally found out that magic and the supernatural were indeed real and he then realised that everything that happened between him and Titan after Titan tried to leave after being exposed had all been the actions of infuriated spirits from the Shadow Realm, who were not happy at Titan's phony Shadow Game and like the Egyptian God Monsters whenever someone played a counterfeit copy of their respective card, the spirits had decided to punish both players in the duel. As the spirit that had possessed Titan had said, the shadows hungered for a soul. In other words, the duel would continue and only the loser would be punished.

"Man, I'd getting way off topic here," he said as he brought his mind back to Euphemia and her story.

That did indeed concern him. Basically, what Euphemia had done was recount events in her own world, probably drawing up knowledge from her subconscious and due to her amnesia, she honestly believed they were just ideas that she had thought up off the top of her head, when in fact, she had pulled them up from her subconscious. Sure, she changed some of the names. Evillia was practically the Holy Britannian Empire and Sakuraditia was practically Japan, which Euphemia had obviously named after Sakuradite, the mineral in Euphemia's world in which Japan held seventy percent of and which was the supposed the main reason Britannia had invaded. In any case, Euphemia had changed some of the names, though for characters, instead of names, she had given them titles, though she had used, Zero as the name of the Prince's alter-ego, which was the same alias Lelouch had taken up, so one name did make it to the surface, though Euphemia clearly had no idea that the name she had believed to have thought up was real.

However, a few things did pique his curiosity; such as how Euphemia came to know of certain things that she should not know. Oh course; with the events concerning Lelouch and Nunnally, who were the Prince and Princess in her story, he knew that Euphemia had mostly taken a guess, since she did know that Lelouch and Nunnally had both been banished after Lelouch confronted their father over his inaction over their mother's assassination. She had probably guessed his motives and despite acting surprised when Lelouch confronted her at the opening ceremony of the SAZ when he told her of his plan to stage his own assassination; like she had no idea why, but in Euphemia's story, the she had mentioned Lelouch's motivation for doing so; that in establishing the SAZ, she had effectively taken away his excuse for taking his revenge since Jaden knew that Lelouch honestly did not care one bit about the Japanese and in fact hated them just as much as he hated the Britannians; even if he was not aware of it. After all, during his stay at the Kururugi Shrine, Lelouch had sometimes gone to the nearby town and had been harassed by some of the locals; not to mention spending seven years passing Japanese who shot him hateful glares just because he was a Britannian undoubtedly contributed to his subconscious hate. Anyway, the point was that how could Euphemia have possibly have known that she had unwittingly taken away his means of exacting his vengeance when she had been surprised when he told her of his plan. Of course, in the short space of time between then and when Lelouch had accidentally placed her under his Geass, she may have come to realise Lelouch's motivation since she did know that Lelouch was fighting to avenge the death of his mother.

However, that did not explain how Euphemia could have known that Lelouch had fallen back on his original plan, since she had been under his Geass at the time and Suzaku had lied to her about the SAZ being a success and so, she could not have known about that and even more peculiar, the title, Princess Massacre had only come around after she had died and after the Emperor had declared that Euphemia had been responsible for the massacre and had been arrested and executed by the military. In other words, Princess Massacre only started to crop up after she died and after Jaden had brought her to his world to revive her, which means, she had no idea that she had been branded with that name; especially considering that the memories of her own world were being forcibly suppressed and yet, Euphemia had used the term, "Princess Massacre" in her story when, even if she was drawing her ideas up from real events in her subconscious, she should not know of that name as she had not been there when it started to come up.

"Very weird," the former Slifer said to himself, "How can she know of something that she wasn't there to find out?"

That did have him stumped, though he did vow to investigate.

* * *

><p>Back in the Slifer dining hall, Euphemia, Yumi and Blair all waited in silence for a while till they were sure that the Arensons were out of earshot.<p>

"You know, girls, all this talk of Abandoned Dorms, disappeared students and Shadow Games has got me really excited," Euphemia said, being the first to break the silence, "Whadda ya see we go look for this Abandoned Dorm?"

"Why?" Yumi asked, suddenly feeling a bit nervous.

"Well, I'm curious," Euphemia replied simply, "There's obviously more to the story that our Headmaster and Headmistress didn't tell us. I want to find out what really happened."

"Well, I only enrolled last year, so I don't know the full story," Blair spoke up, "However, last year, the Abandoned Dorm was destroyed."

"Huh, destroyed?" Euphemia asked curiously.

"I don't know how, since I wasn't there at the time, but something happened last year that caused it to be demolished," the pre-teen bluenette replied.

"But no doubt, the wreckage is still there, right?" Euphemia asked, sounding hopeful, "Maybe some evidence of what happened four years ago survived."

"I guess so," Blair replied with a nod, "I guess you want me to show you the way, right?"

"That would be appreciated," Euphemia confirmed.

"Now wait a minute, I not so sure about this," Yumi protested, sounding rather nervous, "What if something happens to us?"

"What could possibly happen?" Euphemia laughed in a dismissive tone, clearly waving her friend's concerns off, "It's not like we're gonna meet some evil duellist with the power to induce Shadow Games or anything. I've also heard of Shadow Games and the Millennium Items, but like you said, Yumi, it's not true."

Blair gave Euphemia a strange look of surprise and looked unsure on whether or not to object since she knew that magic and the supernatural did exist. She remembered the previous year in which Duel Academy had been sent to another dimension where Duel Monsters spirits were real and she also recalled the events that happened afterwards in which students started to disappear and not only that but as each student disappeared, all memories and evidence of their existence vanished with them and Blair recalled that she was attacked by a man calling himself Trueman and as it turned out, he was responsible and he proceeded to duel her and defeat her and then she was taken to what was known as the World of Darkness in which she had lived out her worst fears over and over again, with events playing back like a broken record. However, she remembered that she eventually heard Jaden's voice and his words had given her the courage face her fears, which led to her release and not only that, but the whole world had been dragged into the World of Darkness as well and they had also been released and she also remembered how Jaden defeated Nightshroud, the one who was ultimately responsible for the whole crisis.

"I know, but…" Yumi started to say.

"Oh, stop being such a worrywart," Euphemia said dismissively, "Like you said, the supernatural doesn't exist, so there's nothing to worry about."

"I guess," Yumi sighed in defeat as she still sounded unsure, though she did not know why.

Like Euphemia had said, the supernatural did not exist and she herself had said that, but still, she could not help but get the feeling that something bad would happen if they went to the Abandon Dorm. It was a pang of some sort that kept gnawing away at her mind and no matter how hard she tried to dispel those thoughts, somehow, it had only served to make it worse.

* * *

><p>The next day, the First-year students all found themselves in Dr Crowler's class and Crowler was busy giving them a lecture. However, up in the Ra Yellow section of the class, Abigail Richardson was in a rather dark mood. She sat with her elbows of the desk and her hands clasped in front of her face as she felt the beginnings of a headache coming on as she felt a throbbing sensation in the veins on the left side of her head as she listened to her roommate, Alicia Riverton happily chatting away with Amanda Ribbets, the girl responsible for her kidnapping three days ago and who had also become her roommate.<p>

"Why me?" she thought to herself, clearly not too happy about her situation, "What have I done to deserve this?"

After Euphemia had defeated Amanda in a duel the previous day, they had all left her and gotten on with the day. However, when Abigail had returned to her room, she had not only been surprised to find an extra bed in the room, but was also surprised to see that its occupant was none other than her former kidnapper. According to Professor Shizuki, Amanda had been assigned her room which she unwillingly shared with Alicia, much to her displeasure. Of course, Abigail had complained, demanding to know who's idea it was to place a would-be kidnapper in the same room as her former victim, but according to Professor Shizuki, all other rooms in the Ra Yellow Girls' Dorm were full and so they had no other choice and so, Abigail had offered to trade rooms with someone, but Professor Shizuki had refused and then brought up the fact that she had no one to blame for being kidnapped other than herself; reminding the bespectacled girl that had she ignored Amanda that night and returned to the dorm with her brother and friend and had not sent them on ahead while she investigated what she believed she had seen then she would not have been in that fix to begin with and the fact that Abigail knew that the Headmistress was right made it a really bitter pill to swallow and not only that, but Professor Shizuki was still in the process of thinking up a suitable punishment for her and so, that only served to infuriate her even more.

It certainly did not help matters that despite being there when she was rescued and having spoken to Amanda in her defence, Alicia had hit it off rather well with the shy-coloured bluenette. Despite not being pleased with Amanda two days ago, with the way Alicia and Amanda were talking to one another, it was as if her kidnapping had never happened and that left a rather bitter taste in her mouth. Just how was that possible? She remembered Alicia angrily demanding that Amanda release her and yet, here they were now chatting away like old friends. Abigail just could not comprehend it. Sure, she knew that Alicia acted as if she was on a constant sugar-high and seemed a bit of a ditz, but during the confrontation with Amanda, Alicia had shed her usual personality, showing that there was perhaps more to her than the bespectacled girl had initially thought and had been genuinely concerned for her. However, now that the situation was over, Alicia had gone back to her usually personality and not only that, but she had become fast friends with a girl that she had outright hated just two days ago.

"So, anyway," Alicia was in the process of saying, "Two days ago, we were all sitting in the first class of the day and Mr Woman was giving us a presentation of different effect-monsters and then we were subjected to the most horrific image known to man."

"Gee, the most horrific image known to man?" Amanda said in curious awe, "What was could that be?

"Mr Woman or Dr Crowler, as he's called in the nude," Alicia replied in a strange tone.

"Eew, gross," Amanda said with a cringe as she could not help but envision the effeminate teacher in his birthday suit, "Don't put that image in my brain, I'll be having nightmares for months."

Abigail could not help but cringe at that as well as she also could not help but imagine an image of a nude Dr Crowler.

"Hear that, Abigail, I guess in a way, you should really be thanking me for kidnapping you?" Amanda said as she turned her attention towards the bespectacled girl, "At least you never saw that horrific image."

Abigail's patience suddenly run out and she turned round, shooting the bluenette a glare and opened her mouth, about to give a reply when someone beat her to it.

"Miss Ribbets, Miss Riverton, would you care to share your conversation with the rest of the class, since you obviously find it more enlightening than my lecture on Ritual-summoning," Dr Crowler's voice came from the bottom of the class and Amanda, Alicia and even Abigail all looked down to find the effeminate teacher glaring up at them… well his glare was focused on Amanda and Alicia since he could see that Abigail wanted nothing to do with their discussion.

"Sure thing," Amanda boasted smugly as she shot Crowler a rather arrogant look, "Basically we were discussing the most horrific image known to man, which, unfortunately for you, happens to be you in your birthday suit."

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" Crowler practically shrieked in a high-pitched voice, completely red in the face, causing everyone in the class to cringe and tense up as to them, it had the same effect of someone running their fingernails down a chalkboard and Amanda's comment did cause many of the students to recall that incident in which one of Crowler's private photographs had gotten mixed up with the presentation slides two days previously.

"Why?" Amanda asked in a dismissive tone, clearly not all that bothered over the authority Crowler had over her, "You're obviously confused as to which gender you are. Did your sex-change operation go wrong?"

Crowler glared furiously up at her as he felt his fury reach boiling point. How dare that girl make fun of him? Not even Jaden had gone so far as to bring up the issue of his gender. That was the biggest issue he faced and whenever someone made fun of him by bringing up his gender, it really upset him. However, instead of exploding with rage, he decided that it would be best to calm down. He especially did not like Amanda in the slightest since she was only here thanks to her father essentially blackmailing Chancellor Sheppard. The way he saw it, Amanda was nothing more than a criminal who had effectively gotten away with it and all thanks to her father's influence, though he did acknowledge that Amanda herself was not happy with it either, but that was not the point. The point was that Amanda had kidnapped one of their students and Duel Academy had been forced into dropping the charges against her and that's what he found so infuriating. Amanda did not deserve to be here. Her place was a jail cell in some correctional facility somewhere.

He did at one point consider perhaps resorting back to his old personality and try to get her expelled through using underhanded tactics like he did with Jaden, but decided against it. Not only would it get him in trouble with her father if he was caught, as he knew that Varos did have enough influence to have the entire academy shut down if he wanted, but it could be seen as a regression and may ultimately prove that he had not really changed at all. Sure, he was no longer an elitist snob and he did value all his students, but he also knew that it was wrong to try and get someone expelled just because he did not like them. He had not liked Jaden and tried to have him expelled, but all he had ended up doing with humiliating himself and he supposed he deserved it, though he was fortunate that Jaden never caught on as he dreaded to think of the consequences if he had decided to get his parents involved. If he was caught here, he knew that he would not only be out of a job, but Varos could possibly arrange it so that he would never be able to get another job for the rest of his life. Besides, his experiences had taught him the value of tolerance. Even after Jaden had caused him to re-evaluate his outlook on life, he did not immediately start to like him. His anger towards Jaden had slowly transformed into grudging tolerance after the school duel to disbelief after Jaden had saved him from Camula and finally during the second year, he started to respect Jaden, though his pride refused to allow him to admit it. In any case, he knew that it was wrong to try and expel Amanda just because he did not like her. He would, albeit grudgingly try to tolerate her and if he found her to be intolerable, then he would bring it up with Chancellor Sheppard. He wanted to prove that he had changed, though he had to admit that the urge to fall into his old habits was still there.

"Believe what you want, my dear," he said in a far more calmer tone, "However, I must say that what goes around, comes around, Miss Varos."

Amanda's eyes widened in shock at hearing Crowler use her real family name.

"And what's the deal with your hair?" Crowler went on, noticing that the bluenette's hair was indeed a mess, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that it looked like a dead rat that fell into a can of blue hair dye."

Now it was Amanda's turn to become red in the face with fury as she had not expected Crowler to turn the tables on her and to make matters worse, the rest of the class burst into laughter.

"Shut up!" she shouted, having nothing else to say.

"Sure thing," Crowler said with a nod, "However, I'll make a bargain with you, you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone, sound fair?"

Amanda just nodded with a huff as she grudgingly accepted Crowler's deal.

Abigail could not help but chuckle. She remembered earlier that morning when she woke up and found Amanda already in her uniform and was in the process of doing her hair and was clearly having great trouble with it. However, she had just sent Abigail and Alicia on ahead while she was fixing her hair. Abigail did mention that they would be late for class and Amanda clearly stated that she did not care and that the look of her hair was more important. It was the same reason she had missed the Entrance Exams and now it seemed as if this habit of fixing her hair was going to carry into her time at Duel Academy and undoubtedly it would cause her to miss most of her classes and so, Abigail had forcibly dragged her along to class, probably as a albiet rather small measure of revenge against her for kidnapping her.

* * *

><p>Later that night, after classes had ended and the sun had dipped below the horizon, Blair was leading Euphemia and Yumi, who looked rather reluctant down a path that Euphemia was sure led to the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm. Each girl had a flashlight in order to see where they were going as it was fairly dark and difficult to see.<p>

"Well, I guess we could just pretend that we've gotten lost in the woods," Euphemia was saying, "Or we could pretend that we're off on some fantastic adventure."

"Yeah," Yumi laughed nervously.

"Don't be such a sourpuss, Yumi," Blair said, clearly annoyed with Yumi's weary attitude, "It could be a whole lot worse. We could have gone down into the sewage system and discovered a colony of "giant-mutant, man-eating, sewer-dwelling tarantulas"."

"Very funny," Yumi stated in a mockingly impressed tone, "I'm not the one who refused to take a shower because she saw a spider at the bottom of it."

"Well, maybe if the shower was cleaned every once in a while, it wouldn't attract all those creepy crawlies," Blair retorted, clearly not happy that the Japanese girl had one-upped her.

"Hey, girls, don't fight," Euphemia said as she tried to play peace-maker, but then noticed a blue-covered book lying at the left side of the pathway, "Gee, I guess we're not the only ones to have come down this way."

"How do you figure?" Yumi said, not having noticed the book as Euphemia went over to where the book was before bending down and picking it up.

"What have you got there?" Blair asked curiously as she noticed the book.

"Just a book I found lying off to the side," Euphemia replied as she showed the other two girls the book, "I'm guess someone must've dropped it."

She then opened the book, using her flashlight as a light to read the text, but then she frowned when she noticed that the majority of the text, diagrams and pictures had mostly faded due to exposure to the elements. However, from what she could gather, the book itself seemed to detail a ritual of some kind.

"What's in it?" Yumi asked curiously.

"Dunno, the text's mostly faded due to exposure to the elements," Euphemia replied as she allowed Yumi and Blair to come closer to see for themselves, "I guess it must've been lying here for quite some time, however, from what I could gather, it seems to document some sort of ritual."

Both Yumi and Blair looked at the pages for themselves and Yumi then noticed that not all the text was in the process of fading.

"Hey, Euphie-chan, not all the text is fading, take a look," she said as she studied the text more thoroughly and to her amazement, not only was the unfading text not in the process of fading, but from the looks of it, it had not started to fade at all and looked as clean and fresh as the day it had been printed and then she noticed somethin else, "Huh, now this is weird."

"What is?" Euphemia asked as she also looked over the unfading text and then saw what Yumi was getting at.

It was not so much as some of the text being unaffected by the elements, but rather, one word in particular and every insistence in which this word came up, it was unaffected by the elements. Everything else had faded, but every time this word came up, it was as if the print had never been outside.

"Wow, now that's just freaky," Yumi said with a hint of nervous fear in her voice.

"Nightshroud," Euphemia said, voicing the unfading word as she skimmed through the pages.

However, whereas the majority of text had faded, every time the word, Nightshroud came up, the print was unaffected by the elements and it was only the word, Nightshroud that this applied to.

"You're right, Yumi, this is freaky," Euphemia said, unable to come up with an explanation on how to explain it, "Just what the heck is a Nightshroud?"

Unbeknownst to the two older girls, upon hearing the name, Nightshroud, the colour had quickly drained from Blair's face and she suddenly started to tremble, looking as if she had just seen a ghost. She did indeed remember Nightshroud. He was the demon that Jaden ultimately defeated the year before and the one responsible for the eclipse that covered the world in darkness and who had the entire world's population taken to his World of Darkness. She had thought to have heard the last of him after Jaden had defeated him, but she did remember hearing Nightshroud inform Jaden that despite the fact he was defeated, so long as darkness existed in people's hearts, he would continue to exist and could never truly be killed and warned Jaden of the possibility of his return, though Jaden had just shrugged it off, claiming that so long as people remained true to themselves, them his return would never come and now Euphemia had discovered a book about Nightshroud in which, the text had all faded aside from Nightshroud's name.

"No, it can't be possible," she thought to herself as a wave of dread washed through her as she started to wonder what this could mean as she was sure that this was no coincidence, "Jaden defeated him last year, there's no possible way he could be back. It's too soon."

"C-c-can we move on, please?" she suddenly found herself blurting out rather hastily, suddenly feeling a horrifying sense of dread.

"Gee, Blair, what's got your panties in bunch?" Yumi joked, totally clueless to the pre-teen's change in mood.

"None of your business!" the bluenette suddenly snapped, causing both older girls to jump in surprise, but then Blair calmed down, "Sorry, it's just that the sooner we get there and investigate, the sooner we can get back and the more time we'll have to sleep before tomorrow's classes start."

"Can't argue with that," Euphemia said as she closed the book, though much to Blair's dismay, instead of putting it back down, she held onto it.

"Yeah, you're right," Yumi said with a nod, though she was curious as to why Blair had snapped, but decided to ignore it and pass it off as Blair being tired of their recent verbal war.

The three girls then walked on with Euphemia placing the book in the left pocket of her Slifer blazer. A little while later, they came to a clearing in which they saw to square-shaped stone posts that formed a gateway, but there were no gates between them, but instead, a rectangular wooden plaque lay on the ground with a rope tied to each corner and it did not take the girls long to determine that the ropes had been attached to the posts, holding the plaque up, but had since slackened and now the plaque was on the ground. To the outer sides of the two posts was a twisted metal fence that had long since fallen into a state of disrepair and formed a square perimeter round what could only her described as fallen debris.

"This must it, the Abandoned Dorm," Yumi said in awe as she examined the debris that littered the area, realising that Blair had been right when she said that the Abandoned Dorm had been destroyed, but she suddenly noticed something strange about the debris, "Hey, Blair, you said that the Abandoned Dorm was demolished, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Blair asked as she looked at the debris, wondering what Yumi was on about.

"I'm no expert on demolition or explosives, but from what I can see from the layout of the debris, I have to say that it looks as if something blew it apart from the inside," Yumi said as she made a double-check, "It must've been quite a powerful explosion in order to blow the entire building apart."

"Well, like I believe I said before, I wasn't here when it was destroyed, so I can't really tell you how it was destroyed," Blair answered truthfully, "All I heard was that it was demolished."

Yumi just nodded.

However, Euphemia looked around, amazed to see the state of the old dorm.

"Must've been one almighty gas explosion," she theorised.

"Or whoever kidnapped those students decided to destroy the evidence," Yumi suggested.

"Possibly," Euphemia agreed with a nod as she moved to walk closer.

However, above her, hanging on a tree branch by a thick brown string that looped in a circle was a golden medallion with the Eye of Anubis symbol on it. The medallion itself was pure solid gold and its weight was pulling the branch downwards, and when Euphemia passed by underneath, all of a sudden, as if by magic, the small diagonally positioned twig growing out from the branch that held the medallion snapped, causing it to fall off and somehow, the string attached to the medallion found itself round Euphemia's neck, catching the pinkette completely by surprise.

"Huh, what the?" she said as she placed her hand underneath the medallion and manoeuvred it so that the flat end was on her palm before examining the medallion, "That's like the same eye insignia that's associated with the Millennium Items."

She did of course hear about the Millennium Items and Shadow Games, but dismissed them as old wives tales. She honestly did not believe in the supernatural and believed that the old stories about the origins of Duel Monsters in Ancient Egypt were hyped up nonsense. Like Arenson had said, most legends probably had a grain of truth in them somewhere. However, the way Euphemia saw it was that that the Ancient Egyptians had somehow captured wild animals and forced them into fighting their wars for them, though how they accomplished this, she was at a loss to explain. However, she believed that that was the truth and that in order to make those wars seem more fantastic, they claimed that sorcerers had summoned monsters from another dimension to do their bidding and duel their enemies and it passed down into legend and as time passed, historians over the ages, in a bid to interpret those stories had probably added bits in order to come up with an easier interpretation and that's how the stories of Duel Monsters in Ancient Egypt came about.

Anyway, Euphemia studied the medallion for a bit, completely awestruck at how it somehow managed to find its way round her neck. However, she did not believe that there was anything magical about it and that as peculiar as how it ended up round her neck was, she wrote it off as some massive coincidence. However, deciding that she would pocket it, she moved to take it off, but to her shock and surprise, she found that the string round her neck was too tight and the diameter was so small that she could not bring it over her head.

"Huh, what's going on here?" she said in a slight panic as she let go of the string, causing the medallion to fall and hang just in front of her stomach.

"What's up, Euphie-chan?" Yumi asked as she turned to see what was wrong with her friend.

"It's this medallion, somehow, it fell round my neck and now I can't get it off," Euphemia replied as she tugged on the string.

"Just pull it off," Blair said with a wave of her hand as she turned to face the pinkette and upon noticing the medallion, her eyes widened in shock as she clearly recognised the Eye of Anubis and instantly guessed that the medallion was magical in origin.

Euphemia took the string on both sides of the medallion and to her surprise, the diameter in looked big enough for her to get over her head, but as soon as she tried, as if by magic, the diameter became a whole lot smaller and Euphemia found herself accidentally slamming her fists into her cheeks, causing her to let go of the string and stumble backward as the string returned to its normal size.

"Wow, how'd you do that?" Yumi asked curiously.

"I don't know," Euphemia said, sounding rather panicky as she was at a loss to explain it, "It looks as if I can get it off, but when I try, it's like the string seems to get smaller, tightening its grip and my chin gets in the way."

"Come on, I'm sure that there's a perfectly rational explanation for this," Yumi explained and she took hold of the string, pulling it out to its maximum length, finding that the diameter was big enough for Euphemia to get it off and then she tried yanking it upwards, but to her surprise and shock, the string seemed to contract and Yumi felt as if she had been tugged forwards and went barrelling into Euphemia, causing them both to fall to the ground.

"Oh my, Euphie-chan, I'm so sorry," Yumi said in a fretful tone as she rolled off Euphemia and picked herself up, unable to believe what she had done.

She honestly could not believe that she had unintentionally hurt her friend. However, just as she yanked at the string, she felt it contract with such a force, that it had pulled her along with it and sent her hurling into Euphemia and she had to wonder just how that was possible.

"It's okay, Yumi, never mind," Euphemia said as she picked herself up, "Let's just leave it for now."

Though she had to admit that it was scary. The medallion had fallen from a tree branch and somehow ended up round her neck and now that it was round her neck, it was as if it refused to come off. The diameter of the string that looped round her neck was indeed big enough to fit over her head, since if it had not been, then there was no possible way it could have gotten round her neck in the first place. However, when she had tried to take it off and Yumi had tried and each time, the string had contracted, becoming smaller to the point that it could not fit over her head. Despite her disbelief in the supernatural, this completely scared her and she was at a loss to explain just how the string was able to expand and contract. However, the contractions were so quick that when her fists slammed into her cheeks, it hurt and Yumi had been pulled into her when she tried. She could not help but feel a rather deep feeling of pure dread rising up from the pit of her stomach. This was something she just could not explain and she suddenly found herself wanting to get rid of the medallion, just knowing that it meant trouble for her in future. Unfortunately, she knew that if she tried to take it off again, then the string with just contract again. It was as if the medallion was alive and had decided to latch onto her and with that in mind, she decided to leave it for now and worry about it at a later date.

"Wait, Euphie, are you sure," Blair asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Yeah, there's nothing that can be done about it now," Euphemia replied was a defeated sigh, "If we try to take it off, the string round my neck will just contract again. I don't know how that happened and I want it off, but there's nothing we can do about for now, so with that in mind, I think it's best if I just leave it for later."

Both Yumi and Blair nodded, reluctantly accepting Euphemia's reasoning.

However, Blair could not help but feel a bit alarmed over this latest development. She just knew that that medallion just meant trouble for Euphemia in the future and that it was probably no coincidence that the medallion had somehow managed to find its way round Euphemia's neck. Despite not being present for Jaden's first and second years, she remembered Jaden telling her about his adventures in how he dealt with Kagemaru and the Shadow Riders and Sartorius and the Society of Light. She also remembered Jaden telling her how the Shadow Riders used items known as Shadow Charms to induce Shadow Games. Basically, the Shadow Charms were objects that emulated with the same powers as the seven Millennium Items and Jaden himself even managed to acquire one. Well, he acquired one half of a medallion before the Shadow Riders arrived when Professor Banner took a few of the students on a hiking trip round the island and they ended up in another dimension in which Jaden had duelled the Gravekeeper's Chief and won. Then when the Shadow Riders showed up, the first one was Atticus Rhodes, who was possessed by Nightshroud and who had acquired the other piece of the medallion that Jaden had and after defeating Nightshroud, Jaden had acquired both pieces. However, from the description of the medallion that Jaden had given her, she knew that it was not the same medallion that Euphemia now wore and the medallion Jaden had definitely did not latch onto him as he could take it off with no problems and had discarded it after the end of the semester.

This was a completely different medallion entirely and it came with a new set of rules, though Blair somehow knew that it was a Shadow Charm of some kind or something similar and that the powers that be, whatever or whoever they were had decided that Euphemia would become its chosen owner and that terrified her. She really liked Euphemia and found her fun to be around. She was kind, friendly and had this passionate gentleness that seemed to set her at ease. It was like a soothing aura that made people want to be her friend and she feared that getting involved in Shadow Games and the dark magical side of Duel Monsters would cause that aura to vanish and cause Euphemia to break. She knew that it had happened to Jaden the previous year. The previous year, Jaden had met Jesse Anderson, the Champion Duellist of North Academy and both boys had hit it off pretty well, but then the Duel Academy had been sent to another dimension and when it returned, Jesse did not return and so Jaden went off with his friends to look for him and Blair did not know what actually happened, but she knew that Jaden had become so traumatised by the experience that when he did finally return, his personality had changed completely and he just did not find duelling fun anymore and whenever he did duel, he always made sure as to finish the duel rather quickly. However, that was not all. Jaden had also become rather cold and distanced himself from everyone else and he had come across to many others as an uncaring jerk like when Atticus ended up in the infirmary and Jaden came in and pretty much demanded that he tell him information that he needed when Atticus was clearly in no condition to talk and when Alexis pointed this out to him, Jaden had uncaringly commented that he needed the information, which had earned him a slap from Alexis and Jaden left.

However Hassleberry had organised a Duelling party as a memorial event for the seniors and had everyone paired into boy/girl pairs for a tag-duel tournament and she was partnered with Hassleberry and Jaden was partnered with Alexis, but Jaden's desire to end the duel quickly had gotten in the way of their teamwork and despite winning their duels, Alexis had been rather infuriated that Jaden was leaving her out of the duel and Jaden could not understand why she was upset. However, come the final duel, which was her and Hassleberry VS Jaden and Alexis, Alexis's patience had run out and so, Blair had played the trap card, Partner Change, which meant that the duellists involved could swap partners, so long as they agreed to it and Alexis was only more than happy to trade Jaden with her, much to poor Hassleberry's displeasure as he felt as if he had been caught in the middle. However, as it turned out, Jaden worked for better with her than he did was Alexis, which only further served to anger Alexis as Blair knew that despite her anger towards him, she still loved him. However, after Alexis played a card that Jaden recognised from the first time they duelled, it seemed to rejuvenate his passion for duelling somewhat and Alexis destroyed her Partner Change card, causing her and Alexis to trade places yet again as the trade-off was only legal so long as Partner Change remained on the field and after that, both Jaden and Alexis were able to work together to win the duel.

"Oh, Euphie," she thought, coming back to reality, "Please, oh please, don't end up like Jaden did."

That was her biggest fear; that Euphemia could potentially end up becoming like Jaden or worse, the power of the Shadow Medallion, as she decided to dub it could possibly corrupt her since she knew that the darkness within Shadow Magic had corrupting properties and could potentially cause good people to turn bad. From what she heard of Kagemaru, he had been an old man whose health was rapidly deteriorating and had turned to Shadow Magic in a bid to restore his youth and in the end up, he had become so warped by the corruption that he sought to enslave the world using the three Sacred Beast cards that had been sealed underneath the Academy. However, unfortunately, the Sacred Beast cards were no longer underneath the Academy had had become lost after Yubel, the one she knew to be responsible for traumatising Jaden and who had possessed Marcel Bonaparte, a boy that she had become really close friends with and who had been Jean-Lois Bonaparte's son had released them and since then, they had become lost in one of the Duel Monsters spirit dimensions. Anyway, with this Shadow Medallion, the pre-teen just knew that Euphemia was heading for trouble.

However, the sound of a twig snapping, almost caused her to jump and apparently, Euphemia and Yumi also jumped and spun round, pointing their flashlights in the direction the sound had come from.

"Hey, hey, easy there, girls," a familiar voice came, sounding rather surprised and the three girls relaxed when they saw that it was none other than Terrance, Abigail, James and Zukasu and Terrance had his arms up in front of his face as he was the one whose face had been assaulted by the glare from the three girls' flashlights.

"Don't do that," Yumi scolded, though she did let out a sigh of relief that it was nothing dangerous, "For all we know, you could've been a mad-axe murderer."

"Well, as you can see, we're not," Abigail said with a laugh.

"Anyway, what're you guys doing here?" Euphemia asked curiously.

"That's funny," Terrance replied as he gave the three girls a questioning look, "We were about to ask you the same thing."

"Well, last night, Professor Arenson and his wife told us about this old abandoned dorm and the stories surrounding it, so we thought, we'd check it out for ourselves," Euphemia replied honestly.

"Well, that wasn't very smart," Zukasu said in a scolding tone as he levelled the three girls a scolding glare as if he were a parent who had just discovered his children being somewhere where they should not have been, "Don't you know that four years ago, a group of students disappeared here?"

"Yeah, yeah, we heard that," Euphemia said in an uninterested tone, "We also heard that they all returned and aside from two of them, the rest were able to slip back into society unnoticed, which is why the rumours they're still missing persist. In any case, why are you here?"

"We have our reasons, that's why!" Abigail snapped as she shot the pinkette a furious glare, clearly not appreciating her uncaring tone.

"The J-Man thought that he'd tag along when he saw Terry 'n' Abi walking together," James replied, explaining why he was there.

"I noticed them walking into the forest and well… I was curious," Zukasu explained as he gave his reason, "I tried to find you after classes finished, but I couldn't find you."

"Wow, no need to snap," Euphemia said in surprise with an apologetic tone, completely taken aback by the bespectacled girl's uncharacteristic fury, "We were just curious as well, but hey, if you want, we'll stay out of your way."

"Sorry," Abigail apologised with a sigh as Terrance put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "It's just that… well last year, there was an incident in which the main building of the Duel Academy mysteriously vanished and even though it returned, afterwards, a group of students disappeared and despite the majority of them returning, two are still unaccounted for."

"And one of those students…" Terrance went on, picking up from where his sister left off, "One of those students was our cousin, Bastion Misawa."

"Bastion Misawa!" Blair exclaimed in surprise as her eyes widened in shock as she knew who he was despite not really socialising with him, "That's one of Jaden's old friends."

Everyone aside from Euphemia, Terrance and Abigail then turned to look at Blair with questioning looks on their faces.

"Wow, you guys never mentioned anything 'bout that," James said as he turned to give the Richardson Twins a hard look, feeling somewhat upset that they never told him about Bastion.

"Must be either a resident of Domino or a person of mixed race between Japanese and…" Euphemia summarised, though she unwittingly said it aloud.

"British," Terrance finished for her, "Bastion is Japanese-British, his father, Daichi was over in the English city of Oxford on a business venture for the Mitsubishi Motors car company. They were planning on building a manufacturing plant somewhere in the city and Daichi had been sent over there to finalise the deal and he met our aunt, Vanessa Richardson who was an overseas student at Oxford University who had come over from Boston."

"Wow, hold up, if his father was Japanese and his mother was American, wouldn't that make him a Japanese-American?" Yumi asked in confusion.

"Well, both Daichi and Auntie Vanessa liked the scenery of the UK and so after they finished their respective work, they both moved over to England and Bastion was born in Oxford," Abigail explained simply, "So despite none of his parents being born in the UK, the fact that he was makes his nationality British by default, since it was the country in which he was born."

"Wow, that's just freaky," Euphemia said, causing everyone to turn and look at her in confusion, "I guess that means all the Britannians born in Area Eleven would be Elevens by default then."

Of course, as soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately forgot what she had just said and was surprised to see everyone suddenly looking at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Huh, Britannians, Area Eleven, what are you on about, Euphie?" James asked curiously.

"Huh, did I just say something?" she asked no one in particular.

"Yeah, you just said something about a place called Area Eleven and how babies born there would be Elevens," Yumi explained, giving her friend a concerned stare since judging from the pinkette's confusion, it was clear that it was another one of her comments that she just did not remember stating.

"And you also mentioned something about a race of people known as Britannians," Terrance added, looking really confused, "What is that, some new slang term for the British or something?"

"Britannia," Abigail stated in a professional tone; the sort of tone a teacher would give when explaining something to their students, "Britannia is the old name given to the British Isles by the Romans after they invaded and note, that Britannia didn't span the entire British Isles. At first Britannia went as far north as the Hadrian Wall and then later, went further north to where the Romans built the Antonine Wall. North of the Antonine Wall was all Caledonia."

"You sure know your history," Yumi stated in an awestruck tone.

"However, I don't think that the natives of Britannia were ever referred to as Britannians," Terrance spoke up.

Euphemia looked confused though the words, Britannia, Britannian and Area Eleven did strike a chord with her. She did of course; know the history of the British Isles as her time with Jaden and Yūgi taught her a lot about the world. However, upon hearing the name Britannia and knowing the history of how the Romans had invaded the British Isles, for some reason, she felt that there was something wrong with that and for some reason, she wanted to state that the history she had learned was not true. However, she did get the distinct feeling that Britannia was a real place; and so was this mysterious "Area Eleven" she had apparently mentioned. She did not know why, since she had never heard of those places, but somehow, deep down, she just knew that they were real. It gnawed at her mind with a fierce persistence and just refused to go away and it scared her and for some reason, she could not help but tie it in with the story she had told the previous night.

"So your cousin, Bastion was born in Britain?" Yumi said, changing the subject and bringing Euphemia back to reality.

"Yes," Terrance said with a sigh, "However, it's peculiar."

"Huh, what is?" James asked, though he was still rather upset at being kept in the dark.

"Well, during his first year here, Bastion was rather enthusiastic," Terrance went on to explain, "He's a really good duellist and upon seeing Jaden Yūki's performance at the Entrance Exam in which he beat Dr Crowler's Ancient Gear Golem, he was thrilled at the prospect of having competition and made it his mission to defeat Jaden, so that he could claim the title of Number One of the freshman class."

"He would periodically write to us every week and one time, he even turned down a promotion to Obelisk Blue because he believed that until he defeated Jaden, he did not consider himself worthy of entering the top dorm," Abigail went on as Terrance took a break, "And even though, when they finally duelled and Jaden won, it only served to motivate Bastion to try even harder."

"Yeah, I know," Euphemia said as she added her two cents, remembering that Jaden told her about Bastion, "I spent some time with Jaden before coming here. He told me about Bastion and from what he told me, come their second year, everything seemed to go downhill for Bastion, isn't that right?"

"Uh huh," Abigail sighed sadly with a nod, "It started off with him being as enthusiastic as before, but as time went on, he started to feel overshadowed and underappreciated and it got so bad that he even joined a group known as the Society of Light."

"The Society of Light?" Yumi questioned in wonder, "I think I may have heard something about that. I believe it was a cult of some kind."

"We're not sure of the details since Bastion never went into detail about it," Terrance spoke up as Abigail took a break, "All we know is that Bastion ended up in a duel in which losing meant joining and winning meant that the leader would be forced to disband the group. However, Bastion confessed that he was on the brink of winning, but that he lost the duel on purpose as he believed that joining would get people to recognise his talents."

"He lost a duel on purpose?" James said, his eyes widening in shock and disbelief, "What the hell? Throwin' a duel on purpose; that's the biggest insult in the entire game of Duel Monsters. Just what the hell was he thinking?"

"Gaining recognition and having others acknowledging his duelling skills," Yumi answered with a blank look, "Weren't you listening? Bastion felt that he was wasn't getting the recognition he believed he deserved and must've believed that his skills were diminishing and so, he sold his soul to the Devil to get back on top."

"I wouldn't put it like that, but yeah, that's exactly it," Terrance said with a nod, though it was clear he was not happy with the way the Japanese girl had phrased it, "The Society of Light was led by this fruitcake, a man called Sartorius who was said to have the power to see into the future."

"Oh please," Yumi scoffed in a somewhat smug way, "Precognitive vision, like all that other supernatural mumbo jumbo is impossible. No one can see into the future because the future hasn't happened yet. I bet he just used tricks and illusions to give the impression that he could see into the future."

"I'm not so sure," Abigail said in an uncertain tone, "From what I heard, whenever Sartorius duelled, he duelled without looking at his cards and yet he knew exactly what cards he was drawing and before you state that he obviously memorised the order of his cards, he had his opponent shuffle his deck without him looking and yet, he still knew what cards he would draw."

"There has to be a trick to that somehow," Yumi stated, though she was confused as to how he could have pulled it off.

"Anyway, unfortunately for Bastion, joining the Society of Light didn't help any and he only succeeded in making a fool out of himself," Terrance said before his sister could reply, deciding to move on, "However, eventually he met his childhood idol, Dr Albert Eisenstein, a world-renowned physicist from Germany who specialises in duel physics, who has an IQ of one hundred and seventy-three and a ten-time Nobel award-winner for his work in the medical profession."

"We don't know why Dr Eisenstein was there," Abigail went on as Terrance took a break, "But Bastion saw him duelling Jaden and somehow, Jaden managed to win, but Bastion suddenly felt inspired or enlightened about his worth as a duellist and as a person and left the Society of Light and left the Academy with Dr Eisenstein, who had taken him on as in impromptu apprentice and helped him in quantum mechanics experiments."

"Wait, if he left the Academy, then how can he be missing?" Zukasu asked in confusion as from what he had just heard, it seemed that Bastion had left of his own freewill.

"Well, that's the confusing part," Terrance said as his sister took a break, "During one of those quantum mechanics experiments, there was an accident in Eisenstein's laboratory and somehow, Bastion disappeared. However, months later, the Duel Academy's main building disappeared in a similar manner and though it returned, Bastion was said to have been sighted on the island, though before anyone could confirm this, he and a few other students disappeared and as we said, all but two of those students have returned and Bastion's one of the two."

"Terry and I were originally intending on joining South Academy," Abigail said, deciding to open up as the cat was already out of the bag, "However, news about Bastion caused us to change our minds."

"And now you want to investigate to see what happened to him," Euphemia summarised and both twins nodded.

"So that's why you were apprehensive about having a roommate," James realised as he remembered that Terrance had lain out ground rules on how he was not to be disturbed while working away on his laptop; ground rules that James had obeyed, "But why didn't ya tell us, we're yer friends, aren't we?"

"Sorry," Terrance apologised with a rather sad sigh as Abigail gave him a look of concern, "After everything that happened to Bastion… we were upset over his downward spiral when he started to feel underappreciated and with his disappearance, we didn't want to burden you all with our problems."

"We were meaning to start our investigation over a month ago when we first arrived, but I guess, hanging out with you guys was so fun that well… we kinda got side-tracked," Abigail said with a sigh, "It was supposed to be a secret and like Terry said, we just didn't want to burden you with our problems."

"Burden us with your problems, you're our friends," Euphemia stated, indicating that she was also not happy at not having been told of their plans, "Listen, I know that it it's probably painful for you guys to talk about and I won't pretend that I understand how you're feeling, but I will say this, we're all friends here and as friends, we're here to support you and after hearing what you just told us, we want to help."

"Huh, really, you mean that?" Terrance asked in surprised, believing that everyone would abandon him and his sister for not telling them.

"Of course," James said as he flashed the Richardson Twins a smile, "Can't say I'm all that happy 'bout being left in the dark, but hey. The J-Man knows that there're things that people keep from even those closest to 'em."

"That's right," Zukasu commented with a smile of his own, "There are some things that people feel are so personal that they don't want to share with anyone, even if those people are their friends."

"In my opinion, I believe that you should have told us," Euphemia said honestly, "But having said that, that's just my opinion on the matter and it doesn't mean that I'm right. It's upsetting that you kept this from us, but I know that you probably felt that you had your reasons for doing so, so let's just drop it. We'll help you in looking for your cousin."

"Hold on," Yumi said in realisation, "Two students are still missing, right?"

"Yeah, and?" Blair asked though everyone did notice that she was rather quiet the whole time

"Well, what about the other guy, what's his name, Adrian something?" Yumi replied.

"Adrian Gecko, top ranking student at East Academy, voted richest, smartest and most famous duellist in America," Zukasu said reciting what he knew of Adrian, "At the beginning of last year, Duel Academy engaged in a special program to help promote its expanding influence. They invited the top ranking duellists from each of their four branches or subsidiaries from around the world, North Academy, South Academy, East Academy and West Academy along with a teacher from West Academy, a Professor Thelonius Viper."

"Viper, who in the hell has a name like that?" Yumi asked curiously

"Who in their right mind would have a family name that shares a name with a group of lizard species?" Euphemia commented in response.

"Touché, Euphie," Yumi replied with a laugh.

"I wouldn't laugh about it if I were you," Abigail said as she, her brother and James suddenly glared at the two girls with rather hard and serious looks on their faces.

"The Gecko Financial Group is multi-billion dollar world-leading conglomerate that has considerable influence over the world's petroleum, heavy chemical industry and IT," Terrance explained, making it clear that he was not to be interrupted, "In other words, they're exceptionally rich and wealthy."

"Their wealth is said to be on par with that of our nemesis's family, the Harrington Family," Zukasu spoke up, causing Yumi to cringe upon being reminded of their teal-haired nemesis, "And Adrian just so happens to be their eldest son."

"And what's really strange is that despite his disappearance, one would have expected the Gecko Family to be up in arms over the loss of their son and hit Duel Academy with a massive lawsuit or have the Academy shut down and yet, no one's heard so much as a peep from 'em," James said, making his own contribution, "They've been unusually quiet over the issue."

"Wow, that's just weird," Euphemia said as she found it strange that a wealthy family had seemingly chosen to abandon their eldest son, "Does anyone know why?"

"No, that's just it," Zukasu said, looking just as confused, "The Gecko Family are a very secretive bunch. It's rumoured that they run their own intelligence agency and engage in espionage, assassinations and who knows what else. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'd choose the Harrington Family over the Gecko Family any day of the week because at least with the Harringtons, everyone knows what they're up to. The Gecko Family on the other hand is way too secretive for my tastes. Heck, going into their website; certain parts of their website can't be accessed by just anyone. Trying to access those parts only causes an error message to pop up."

"Sounds like they're a sinister bunch," Euphemia noted as she went over what she just heard, "I wonder what they've got to hide."

"Believe me, you probably don't want to know," Terrance said with a shiver as he shook his head, "Anyway, their silence over Adrian's disappearance has led to rumours that they were watching Duel Academy and were after something, though no one knows what."

"That would make sense," Yumi said with a nod, "If they had been staking out Duel Academy and were after something, then raising hell over their son's disappearance would probably earn them unwanted attention."

"However, that's not all," Abigail said as she decided to reveal more on what she and her brother had found out, "I don't think that it was anything to do with Duel Academy. I think it had something to do with Professor Viper. From what we managed to discover, if anyone was a target of the Gecko Family, it was him. He had something they wanted."

"Boy, I wonder what that could be," Yumi wondered.

"Don't know, but apparently on the lead up to the disappearance of the main Academy Building, students started to mysteriously drop like flies after engaging in duels," Terrance spoke up, "When they were examined, the cause was diagnosed as fatigue and exhaustion as if they had been exercising non-stop for hours."

"What brought that on?" Euphemia asked curiously.

"Don't know, but rumours were circulating that it had something to do with Professor Viper's bio-bands," Abigail stated in wonder, "You see, Professor Viper came from West Academy and West Academy had what was known as the Survival Duel system. Basically each student was required to wear what was known as a bio-band, which basically monitors their duelling skills as well measures their fighting spirit based on passion, concentration and decisions made during every duel… that sort of thing. Basically, how it works is if their fighting spirit is beneath a certain level, then students would face a demotion and if their motivation doesn't improve then they faced straight-up expulsion. That's how West Academy works and that's what Viper planned to introduce here at Duel Academy. However, as you can imagine, it was not a popular thing."

"Yeah, from what the J-Man heard, Viper seemed to think that he was runnin' a boot camp instead of a duellin' school," James added since he knew at least some of what happened the previous year.

"Probably just a case of the fear of demotion or expulsion caused the students to push themselves too hard in their duels that it exhausted them," Euphemia theorised as she went over what she just heard, "And so when they were looking for an explanation, since they did not like the Survival Duel system, they blamed the bio-bands, hoping to get the Survival Duel system scarped when in fact, they were probably doing it to themselves."

"Yes, that is a plausible theory," Terrance said in agreement, but from the look in his eyes, there was a very big, "but" in there, "However, from just one duel? Some of those students had fairly light duels and it was only just one duel and yet, they all collapsed without showing any signs that they had been pushing themselves to their limits."

"Anyway," Abigail said as she moved things along, "No one knows exactly what happened, but in the lead-up to the main building's disappearance, Professor Viper and one of Duel Academy's own professors, a Professor Graham Stein both apparently died."

"Wow, hold up, people actually died?" Euphemia said as her eyes widened in shock and disbelief, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"Unfortunately, yes," Terrance sighed, indicating that it was no joke, "Both their bodies had been recovered and according to the autopsy reports, both died from falling from a great height, which in the case of Professor Stein is perfectly explicable since his body was found at the bottom of a deep chasm, but unfortunately they can't explain how Professor Viper managed to fall from a height since there was nothing he could have fallen from that was high enough to have killed him."

"P-p-people actually died," Euphemia repeated in complete shock.

"You don't suppose they were murdered, do you?" Yumi asked curiously, trembling nervously as she had to admit that she was shaken up.

"Who knows," Terrance said dismissively, "There's no evidence that suggests foul play; especially in Professor Stein's case since one of his cards was found at the edge of the chasm he fell into and the coroner hypothesised that he was leaning over to pick it up when he either slipped or leaned too far over the edge and fell in."

"Can we just put all this talk behind us and move on?" Blair said in a rather agitated tone, clearly getting impatient and everyone could detect a hint of uneasiness in her tone.

"Oh, that's right, you were here last year," James said as took note of Blair's tone, "You wouldn't happen to know what happened, do you."

"I don't want to talk about it," Blair replied, shaking her head in a pained tone as she could not help but remember the horrors of being transported to another dimension, being attacked by Yubel as she made her move to possess Marcel and then having Jaden return as a cold and uncaring jerk.

"Hey, let's just drop it for now, huh," Euphemia said upon recovering from her shock and sensing her roommate's distress, "Blair clearly doesn't want to talk about it and from the sound of it, it's too painful for her to recall, isn't that right, Blair?"

Blair just nodded as tears started to well up in her eyes as she remembered Marcel and how Yubel had possessed him and then discarded him when she no longer needed him. She remembered that she had met Marcel the previous year. He was a Ra Yellow student who was apparently shy and had a difficult time making friends. She could see that he was lonely and decided to take it upon herself to look out for him. Unfortunately, Marcel was used to being alone and it made her interactions with him difficult and she remembered getting frustrated over his reluctance to accept her friendship. She remembered one time, having to force him to try some food she had made for him, but he had run off and only stopped when she called out to him. It was obvious that Marcel was not used to being around people and did not know how to handle conversing with others and preferred to be alone, but he was also too polite to tell others to leave him alone and for Blair, trying to get Marcel to even say "Hello" was a massive chore. However, despite her frustration over the issue, she refused to give up and then the main building was sent to another dimension and Blair had Marcel accompany to the bathroom, but on the way back, Yubel had attacked, possessing Marcel and injuring her, leaving a grotesque gash that seemed to emit a bright orange glow on her arm. However, all she had seen was an orange silhouette with a grotesque looking left arm; Yubel's left arm and later, Yubel had turned many of the students into duel-obsessed zombies and eventually challenged Jaden to a duel and Yubel had pretty much dominated the duel, since she knew Jaden and had already planned on how to deal with him. However, Jesse had gotten involved in the duel and Blair remembered how she had rushed over to the duel site and demanded that Yubel release Marcel and Yubel did release him and then tossed him over to her as if he were a rag doll. However, eventually, using the power of the Rainbow Dragon, Jesse was about to return Duel Academy, though he had not returned and had been left with Yubel and Blair knew that Jaden and a few others had left to go look for Jesse, which led to Jaden's drastic personality change. However, Marcel recovered and as it turned out, he was Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte's son who had constantly overheard his parents arguing over his father's many job opportunities and eventually, Bonaparte had decided that enough was enough and told his wife that he was leaving for a new job and that had pretty much destroyed their marriage and Marcel was in his mother's custody, but he missed his father and believed that he did not love him. Anyway, afterwards, Bonaparte and Marcel reconciled and Bonaparte apologised to his son for neglecting him and everyone returned from trying to find Jesse, Duel Academy had scrapped their planned program, Bonaparte reassigned his position and Marcel pulled out to go spend time with his father.

However, as upset as she was at Marcel's departure, Blair was also happy that he was able to finally resolve his issues and liked to think that she had a hand in it.

"Anyway, let's explore," Euphemia said as she brought the pre-teen bluenette back to reality.

Everyone nodded and then started to look around. Unfortunately, there was not much to find other than bits of debris. However, as they continued to look around, James noticed that near the centre, there was a hole in the ground and ran over to it.

"Hey guys, I think I found something," he called over to the others.

"Really, what have you got there?" Zukasu asked as he and the others came running over.

"Dunno, but it looks like it leads underground," James replied as he inspected the hole further.

It was dark inside the hole, though it did look as if they could get down safely with no problems. Shining a flashlight down the hole, James noticed that they were at the top of a stairway that led down into what he and the others guessed was probably the basement of the dorm and from the look of it, it seemed that the basement had escaped the explosion.

"What do you suppose is down there?" Terrance asked no one in particular.

"Yeah, ask us, like we're gonna know," Abigail said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Euphemia said as she started to walk down the staircase.

However, staring down into the darkness, Yumi started to shake and tremble in apprehension as a sudden feeling of uneasiness and dread washed over her as she suddenly decided that going down into the basement was probably not the best idea. She did not know why, but all of a sudden, she felt that she wanted to get as far away from the Abandoned Dorm as possible.

"Hey, guys, I'm not so sure if going down there's such a good idea," she spoke up, causing Euphemia to stop and stare back at her friend.

"Not again," the pinkette said in frustration, "Come on, Yumi, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, but all of a sudden I feel the need to turn and flee," the brunette replied.

"Yeah, come on, what could possibly happen to us?" James said as he was also confused as to Yumi's sudden change in mood.

"You said it yourself, there's no such thing as the supernatural," Euphemia said, reminding the Japanese girl on what she had said before, "What's gonna happen to us, are we gonna run into some soul-hungry shadow-spirits?"

"That's not funny!" Yumi snapped, clearly not liking the fact that the pinkette was clearly taunting her.

"Don't be such a worrywart," Zukasu said, shaking his head, "The worst that could happen that there's a wild animal such as a bear or a pack of wolves living down there and I doubt that."

Yumi only groaned in frustration as she knew that Zukasu was probably right. She did know of the rumours of the secret animal-testing facility that was said to have been on the island and of the rumours that when it had been abandoned, they had left the animals and that some of those animals had escaped. However, like Zukasu said, that was highly unlikely as if that had been the case, then surely the Academy's faculty would have given the students fair warning and would have taken steps to ensure their safety. However, as such, no such warnings or rules had been made, so it should be perfectly safe, right?

Unfortunately, she could not get rid of the nagging feeling that something was terribly wrong. It was like a pang of insecurity that kept gnawing away at her mind, refusing to leave her alone and all efforts she made to try and dispel the notion only served to make it worse and the feeling only intensified the more she tried to get rid of it.

"No, I'm not going down there," the Japanese girl said, shaking her head with a tone of finality, surprising everyone present, "You guys go on if you want to, but I'm staying here."

"Alright, if you insist," Euphemia said with a sigh, "I guess you can act as a lookout."

"Yeah, that's it, I'll be a lookout," Yumi found herself agreeing with a rather hasty nod.

"Hey, Yumi, are you sure?" Abigail said as she gave the other girl a look of concern, "Will you be alright by yourself?"

Yumi just nodded and from the look on her face, it was clear that nothing was going to change her mind.

"Okay then," Euphemia said as the others all agreed to leave Yumi to act as a lookout.

"Man, who knew that Yumi could be so grouchy?" James whispered to Terrance.

"You learn something new every day," Terrance whispered back to him.

"I'll be fine," Yumi said, waving off any concern that the others had for her, "It's not like there's an intruder on the island that's going to kidnap me."

Abigail groaned at this as she shot the Japanese brunette a glare, not happy that she had reminded her of her own ordeal two to three days ago, but chose not to respond and she and the others all made their way down towards the basement.

"See you later, Yumi," Euphemia said as they parted ways, "Don't disappear on us, now."

"Oh, very funny, Euphie-chan," Yumi sarcastically called down the passageway, "I'm laughing so hard that I'm wetting myself."

She then turned and walked away from the hole that led down to the basement and sat on a rather large chunk of debris. However, just as she relaxed and had become accustomed to the fact that she was now alone, she suddenly noticed a shadow in the moonlight that appeared and loomed over her, followed by evil laughter.

"You should really know better than to tempt fate, my dear," a deep voice then said, causing the Japanese girl to turn and gasp as she saw the silhouette of a huge muscular figure wearing a fedora and a trenchcoat standing over her.

"Euphie-chan!" she shouted as the man suddenly brought his enormous hand and clamped it over her nose and mouth.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Euphemia and the others walked down the passageway, finding the walls and ceiling had wooden beams built into them and that the passageway itself looked more like a cavern and the ceiling itself really was not all that high. Euphemia found that if she reached her hand up, the she could easily touch the ceiling.<p>

"Gee, I wonder what we're gonna find once we reach the end," Zukasu wondered curiously.

"Who knows?" James replied with a wave of his hand, "Maybe there's treasure down here; like maybe in olden times a group of pirates discovered this island and hid their treasure down here."

"Well, this does look more like a cave than a corridor, I'll say that much," Terrance said as he took in the surroundings.

"You don't think there's something down here that's connected to the Shadow Games, do you?" Abigail asked curiously.

"Who knows, but you don't honestly believe in that mumbo-jumbo, do you?" James asked, waving off the possibility of the Shadow Games being real.

"Well, there is a debate on whether or not the Shadow Games are real," Terrance said, answering for his sister, "And even though most people don't believe in it, I have to say that going over some of those instances in which the Shadow Games are said to be involved… well if they really are tricks and illusions, then they're sure-as-hell really damned convincing."

"How do you figure?" James asked curiously.

"Well, do you remember before Kaiba Corp's Grand Championship over ten years ago?" Terrance asked in interested.

"Vaguely," James admitted with a nod, "However, the J-Man was just a tot at the time."

"Well, do you remember that before the Grand Championship, there were reports of duel disks malfunctioning and the holograms apparently started to run amuck?" Terrance went on inquiring.

"Hey, wasn't that written off as one big publicity stunt that Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions came up with to promote the game of Duel Monsters?" Abigail asked, making her own contribution to the conversation.

"That's the official story," Terrance said with a nod as he admitted that much, "However, neither Pegasus, nor Kaiba faced any criminal charges following those incidents and as I understand it, those so-called holograms looked way to damned realistic to be holograms and also, there were reports that some people had been killed by those holograms. I'm no holographic expert, but since when did holograms become capable of drawing blood and breaking things?"

"We're here," Euphemia said, interrupting the conversation as she emerged into was could only be described as a huge cavern.

The cavern was incredibly huge with the ceiling being so high that it was too dark to see. However in front of them was a massively wide circular depression in the ground and surrounding the depression round the rim were stone sculptures of what appeared to be greyish blue dragon heads. However, the depression itself was not all that deep and in fact, it was so swallow that people would have no problems climbing in and out of it. However down in the depression in the centre of the greyish blue floor was a huge circle carved into the floor, though there were two smaller circles at two opposite sides of the huge circle that were also carved into the floor. However, also there were a variety of lines that were also carved into the floor that formed various shapes and also there were really small holes with curved bottoms like the insides of bowls. The lines in the floor seemed to come the edge of the depression nearest the entrance and go off towards the circle and pass into the circle and then move to the left and up a small slab of rock that was leaning on the wall of the depression and then continued onwards up to a hugely significantly bigger slab of rock that was leaning on the wall of the cavern at the edge of the depression and the big slab of rock also had a small hole with a rounded bottom.

"Wow, I have to say that there may be treasure down here like you said, J-Man," Zukasu said in astonishment as he took in the immense size and the layout of the cavern, "But from what I can see, this place must've been inhabited by some ancient tribe in the past."

"Yeah, the carvings on the floor do seem to indicate that the island was indeed inhabited in the past," Euphemia said as she studying the carvings closely, "This cavern must've been used to conduct some sort of ritual in the past and I'm guessing when they built the dorm building, the students must've come down here and used it as a duelling arena."

Everyone could not help but nod in agreement as the studied the circle carved into the floor and noticed the two smaller circles carved into the larger one. The smaller circles where probably were duellists stood when facing one another and the larger circle undoubtedly acted at the field, so like Euphemia had hypothesised, the students had probably turned the ritual ground into their own duelling arena.

* * *

><p>Yumi opened her eyes as she felt the beginnings of a massive headache coming on and once she opened her eyes, she could not help but blink as she noticed that something was terribly wrong. Looking ahead of her she noticed that not only was she lying in a vertical position, but the world looked as if it was upside down and after a few moments of disorientation, her eyes widened in shock as she tried to move her arms and legs, but found that they were tied to the surface she was currently lying on. He arms were spread out diagonally and tied at her wrists and her legs were also spread out and tied at the ankles, though to Yumi's relief, she was glad to find that she still had her clothes on. However, it was then that her memories suddenly came flooding back to her. She had refused to accompany her friends down to the basement of the Abandoned Dorm and after they had left her, she had been attacked by a huge hulking figure in a trenchcoat and a fedora who had placed his hand over her nose and mouth and proceeded to knock her out.<p>

"What the…?" she said in confusion and fear, "Where am I and why am I upside down?"

As if to respond to her question, the entire room sudden boomed with evil laughter that Yumi recognised as belonging to her attacker.

"Hey, what's this about?" Yumi demanded as she glared ahead of her, "Why am I here? Just what is it that you want?"

"It's not you that I want," the loud booming voice said as the Japanese girl suddenly noticed the silhouette that she recognised as belonging to her attacker rose up from the floor and to her shock, she saw that he was not alone as two others emerged from the shadows on opposite ends of the room and walked over to either side of him.

"You are nothing more than the bait," the man in the middle said in a quieter voice, though it was the same voice that had spoken before, "Bait to lure my quarry to me."

Yumi's eyes widened in shock as she studied the three men in front of her and was surprised to find that the two on either side of the man in the middle, not only looked exactly the same, but they were identical clothing as well. However, unlike before since it had been dark; Yumi could see the three men in front of her perfectly. The man in the middle had back shoes and a dark grey, almost black trenchcoat with a lighter shade of grey providing an outline and a high-rise collar that cover three-quarter of his head and was folded back. However, what made this trenchcoat stand out was that at the front the opening where the coat separated was not in the middle, but rather to the right with a total of nine buttons; six underneath his waist and three above his waist The tops of his shoulders that a grey outline with a strap at either side with pointed ends buttoned onto the side of his shoulder and on either side of his coat at the sides of his legs were three buttoned straps running horizontally with straight ends at the back and pointed ends at the front. The cuff of the right hand sleeve was a lighter shade of grey than the rest of the coat with a darker grey straps with two pointed ends attached to it with a button at either end. He also had a light grey belt situated round his waist with a rectangular front and into the rectangle were a series of buttons in three rows of three and to the man's left, still inside his belt's rectangle were two other buttons, each one with a red arrow symbolising it with the arrow in the top button pointing upwards and the arrow in the bottom button pointing downwards. At the top of the rectangle was a small white cuboid and attached to that were two small pipes that vertically up to a white armoured plate over his chest that was rounded to the right and went over to his left where the over end was straight and went over his left shoulder was a rounded end at the back The rounded right end of the plate was in fact part of a circle and at the opposite end of the circle, sitting in a horizontal position was a deck of Duel Monster cards with a red arrow pointing towards them situated in the centre of the circle. From the circle, three lines moved horizontally to the left end with one just above the deck, another below the deck and the other in the centre in between and on the front of his shoulder were to blue orbs, a small one and a bigger one above that and also there was an orb on top of his shoulder and, yet another one at the back and also at the back was an opening with a red arrow pointing into it. He also wore black fingerless gloves over his hands and dark greyish blue plates over his knuckles and attached to his left arm was what could easily be described as an oversized bracelet as it extended from his wrist right up to his just underneath his elbow and the bottom had three wires protruding from it attached to a white plated rectangle that was attached to his left glove over the back of his hand To the outer left of the "bracelet was a semi-circle with an opening on the circumference and also there was an opening into the semi-circle with a red arrow pointing towards it and also on the top of the "bracelet" was a rectangle that formed a small depression at each corner and formed a smaller rectangle within it was a line running along the centre and it. Aside from that, Yumi also noticed that he wore a dark grey, almost black fedora with a darker grey band and also had a purple mask over the upper half of his face with an ovular shaped ruby embedded in it over his forehead and between his eyes and also had curved fang-like protrusions over his cheeks.

As for the two identical men standing on either side of him, both of whom Yumi could not help but get a sense of déjà vu as she studied them, both had a slight brown skin tone with a greyish tint to it. They both had short dark grey hair styled in such a way that gave the impression that there were small spikes sticking out round the curve of their heads at the top. However, Yumi could not see their eyes at they were covered by a pair of dark brownish purple rectangular sunglass; at that least she believed they were sunglasses. They both wore identical jumpsuits that were different shades of grey, had dark reddish brown ovals depicted in them, a light reddish orange outline and spikes protruding out of them and also covered the entirety of their hands. The jumpsuits themselves had spikes on either side of each individual legging above the ankles, three at the outer sides of each thigh, two at the both sides of the hips, two just below the elbows on the sleeves, two at the sides of each shoulder and at either side of the back of the neck. However even more bizarre, at least in Yumi's opinion, the centre of each foot, a reddish orange line ran up the front of each leg till they came to the knees in which they formed a diamond shape Up in the centre of each thigh the reddish orange outline depicted a V shape with the inner line looping round the inside of the thighs and the outer line moving up to the bottom of the hips before lopping round the outside round the bottom of the hips and above the last of the spikes at the sides and then moved downwards at the back before meeting up with the inner line again, forming another V shape at the back of the thighs. There was also an outline depicting another V shape at the back at the top of the hip with the point at the centre of the area above the butt cheeks and both lines looped round to the front and then moved downwards at a slight diagonal angle towards the centre of their crotches, halfway between the sides and the centre of the front, the lines then moved upwards vertically , outlining the abdomen and once reaching the halfway-point between the top of the hips and the bottom of the stomach area, the lines curved outwards slight before continuing their journey upwards till they reached the bottom of the stomach area and then looped round the back where they met up again and forming an upward curve at the back. There was also an outline running downwards from the top of the centre of each jumpsuit till they reach the centre of the chest and the moved out horizontally in each direction till reaching the centre of each chest plate muscle before moving downwards to the bottom of each chest plate muscle and then moving outwards while outlining the bottom of each muscles till reaching the side of the shoulders before moving upwards, over the shoulders and meeting up again at the back while outlining the bottom of the upper back muscles. There were also outlines at the top of each arm with a straight line running horizontally at the top of each hand just underneath the knuckles and then two lines, one at either end of the horizontal lines running vertically along the top of each arm to halfway between the wrists and the elbows before they started to spiral round the arms with two lines seen; one spiralling round each upper arm. The majority of the jumpsuits were a really dark grey, almost black colour with a dark reddish brown oval depicted vertically in the stomach area with an outline and two more reddish brown ovals were positioned at the top of each hand inside the outlining. The front of the stomach area of the jumpsuits over the oval was the same dark grey, almost black colour as the rest of the jumpsuits, but the areas at the side and the back between the hips and the upper back between the two outlined areas were a light shade of grey with small black lines running vertically down the light grey in a striped pattern.

For some reason, Yumi could not help but feel a sense of familiarity as she studied the two identical men; like she had met them before and suddenly, a wave of fear and terror washed over her as the feeling of déjà vu she had told her that they were in no way friendly. Somehow she just knew that these men had not been friendly to her in the past.

"Like I said before, my dear," the man in the middle spoke up, bringing the captured girl out of her thoughts, "You should've known better than to tempt fate and also, you would have been safer staying with your friends, not that it would've helped you in the long run as I would have confronted you all anyway."

"W-w-what d-d-do you w-w-want?" the Japanese girl stuttered fearfully, trying very hard not to tremble as she remembered Abigail's predicament two days previously.

However, unlike Abigail, who had been kidnapped by a girl eager to enrol in Duel Academy, Yumi knew that this kidnapper would not be as gentle or as kind as Amanda had been to Abigail. Unlike Amanda, she knew that the chances were that unless someone helped her, she would not be leaving this room alive as she knew that tis man would probably dispose of her once she had fulfilled her purpose, unlike Amanda who had every intention of letting Abigail go, even if it was not until her demands had been met. However, she knew this man had no such intentions of letting her go and was going to kill her just to eliminate a possible witness to whatever it was he had planned.

"As I already told you, my dear," the man said in a sinisterly frightening tone as the edges of his mouth slowly curved upwards, forming a terrifyingly cruel and sadistic grin that caused the captive girl to tremble as shivers ran up and down her spine, "It's not you that I'm after. You're just the bait to lure my prey to me."

"Prey?" Yumi said, completely confused as she did not understand what this man was on about.

"That's right, my dear," the man said with a sinister laugh, "You're going to lure the pink-haired princess to me and then I'm going to duel her in a Shadow Game."

"Pink-haired…?" Yumi questioned before her eyes widened in realisation at who his target was, "Euphie-chan!"

"That's right," the man confirmed with a nod, "Young Euphemia will be subjected to a Shadow Game and then I will finally be free from the accursed Shadow Realm."

"Look, pal, I don't know what your beef with Euphie-chan is, but Shadow Games don't exist," Yumi said as she momentarily forgot her fear and glared at the man, "You've been reading too into those legends. However, I know for a fact that the supernatural doesn't exist."

The man's response was just to burst out in evil laughter.

"Well, you're not the first to make such claims," he said admittedly, "The others didn't believe in Shadow Games or the supernatural either, but they were soon convinced, as will you be."

"Others…?" Yumi said fearfully as her eyes widened as her fear came back in one big massive torrent, "So, it was you, you've the one behind those disappearances."

"You're the second person to make such an accusation, but no, I was not referring to the missing students," the man said in a tone so calm that Yumi could not help but tremble as she did not like the vibe this man was giving off, "I was simply referring to my previous opponents."

Sure she was scared and terrified, but there was just something about the vibes that this man gave off that seemed to scare her more than usual. Heck, she felt even more scared than she did that time she had accidentally walked into Stella's trap that she had set up for Euphemia after she had found Stella's phony love letter and Stella had ended up trying to kill her after she had bitten her in a bid to escape. Even then, she had been nowhere near as frightened as she was now. She just could not explain it. Something about this man just made her blood run cold and she could not help but shiver as the temperature in the room felt as if it was below freezing and despite trying to pass it off as the wind, she somehow got the sneaking suspicion that she was just making excuses since there was indeed a wind blowing in the room, but not to the point of affecting the temperature to such a degree. No, despite making excuses, she just knew that the drop in temperature was due to this man and it certainly did not help matters that she had a sense of mysterious familiarity with his accomplices as that did serve to add to her growing insecurities.

"I can see it in your eyes," the man spoke up again, "I can see that you're in denial. However, let me prove to you that the supernatural does exist."

"Y-you're on," Yumi said, feeling somewhat brave and somewhat afraid at the same time.

He then turned to face his accomplice on the right and gave him a nod. The other man just nodded back and suddenly, he was surrounded by a black mist that completely enveloped his body. However, what happened next, caused Yumi's eyes to widen as the black mist moved off to the side of the man and appeared as if it was coming off the man, like a cell splitting in two and then the mist formed into a human shape and then a third man materialised in place of the mist and what shocked the Japanese girl the most, was that this new man was completely identical to the other two identical men in the room.

"That's a really good trick," Yumi said in an effort to try and be brave, "Probably just holograms or smoke and mirrors."

The three identical men all frowned and then turned to look at the captive girl and if despite their sunglasses covering their eyes, Yumi could tell that they were glaring at her and must have felt insulted by her comments.

"I think she needs more convincing," one of the identical men; the one who had been to the man in the trenchcoat's left said, speaking up for the first time since Yumi had seen them.

"Yes, I wholeheartedly agree," the one who had been to the trenchcoat man's right said in agreement and Yumi was surprised to hear that both men not only looked identical and wore identical clothing, but also spoke with identical voices.

"Very well," the man in the trenchcoat said as he unbutton the upper half of her coat and reached inside before pulling out a deck of Duel Monster cards despite already having a deck on the armoured plate of his trenchcoat and Yumi guessed that the armoured plate and the oversized bracelet on his left arm must be what he used to duel with.

The deck in his hand suddenly started to emit the same black mist that had been surrounding one of the identical men and had formed into a third identical man.

"Still not convinced," Yumi said, shaking her head, though to be honest, she had a creeping sense of dread that seemed to be creeping its way into her mind as somehow she just knew that she was not going to like the results of what they were trying to show her.

The man in the trenchcoat just chuckled and he threw the deck into the air, causing the cards to scatter. However, the black mist surrounding them did not dissipate and Yumi's eyes widened in shock as she witnessed the black mist appearing to pull all the scattered cards back together, only instead of bringing them back into a neatly arranged deck, the cards were clustered together as the back mist started to shape itself into a human shape, still with the cards inside it and then a man identical to the three identical men materialised and shot the Japanese girl a rather sinisterly triumphant grin.

"Do you believe us now, Miss Fujiharu?" the newly materialised man said as he seemed to enjoy the sight of the captive girl's eyes widening in shock and disbelief as Yumi started shaking her head rather hastily.

"No, no, no," she said in a rather desperate tone of disbelief, "This isn't happening, this just can't be happening. It isn't real. This is just one big nightmare."

"I assure you, Miss Fujiharu that this is all very real," the newly materialised identical man said, "And, just for the record, we have crossed paths before, though it wasn't me, but one of my clones."

"Huh?" Yumi said as her eyes widened in further disbelief, though she had to admit that these identical men did look familiar to her.

"In fact, everyone in the world has encountered me before," one of the other identical men said, "Even if the majority of the populace managed to block the experience from their minds."

"No way!" Yumi screamed in denial as she suddenly recalled a memory from the previous year and then everything that she had subconsciously blocked from her mind after the previous year's freak-eclipse came flooding back to her.

She remembered how she had been down on her luck in Duel Monsters. He sister's lecture years before on how she would never impress her and how she was just wasting her time had really dispirited her and ate away at her confidence and self-esteem. She had wanted to prove Seika wrong and had decided to enrol in Duel Academy in an attempt to gain the confidence to prove her sister wrong; that she was a good duellist and was capable of impressing her. However, she could not help but worry that she would fail. She feared that no matter how hard she tried or how well she duelled, Seika would just refuse to acknowledge her skills and that depressed her terribly. As much as she tried to shake off her fears and move on, she found that she just could not shake them off and occasionally had nightmares in which she did fail and Seika continued to berate her, calling her worthless and that she was better off just rolling over and dying.

However, the previous year, even before the freak-eclipse, Yumi suddenly remembered how people she knew suddenly started vanishing; not just from the physical plain, but from her memories as well. She remembered how, looking at a picture of her family one day and then Seika suddenly just vanished from the photograph and what had been terrifying was that Yumi remembered that she had forgotten who her sister was. She had forgotten her name and even what she looked like, but she did still retain the knowledge that she existed, but that she just could not remember anything about her other than the fact that she had a sister that she could not remember. However, this extended to others that she knew, including her own parents. It had been frightening knowing that people she knew were disappearing and she was suddenly forgetting about them as they disappeared aside from the feeling that someone had existed.

Yumi also remembered how she had been in her room in hiding since she had essentially ended up being alone, not remembering her parents or her sister and fearful that the same thing would happen to her and then as she was holding onto her Duel Monsters deck, the black mist she had just witnessed had appeared round her deck and transform into a man, identical to the four identical men in the room and she remembered how she had been challenged to a duel and the man had proceeded to trounce her and then, the next thing she knew after losing the duel, she was living out her fears of her sister berating her over and over and the same events had played out over and over like a broken record and Yumi found herself slowly sinking into despair as her sister's voice continued to echo in her mind, berating her tauntingly and she also remembered wishing that she could just curl up and die, just as Seika had suggested. However, eventually, she remembered hearing a voice and though she could not remember what it had said, it somehow had given her the courage to stand up to Seika and then she was free, back in her room and she remembered who everyone was again. However, unfortunately, most of those events had been suppressed and she had believed that she and the rest of the world had simply been forced to sleep by the freak-eclipse.

"You, you're the ones responsible for everyone disappearing last year," she said as a wave of horror suddenly washed over her as she started to thrash at her bindings, "You made everyone disappear and then erased them from our memories."

"I think she understands now," one of the identical men said with a sinister smirk.

"Yes," the man in the trenchcoat said as he turned his attention towards the newly formed identical man, "I will deal with Euphemia alone. Make sure that her friends don't interfere."

The man he had spoken to nodded and then suddenly transformed back into black mist with the cards still within, but instead of dissipating, the black mist suddenly left down a corridor as the man in the trenchcoat turned his attention back to the terrified Yumi and then advanced on her as he suddenly started to emit a black, sinister aura.

"Still think that the supernatural's all tricks and illusions now, my dear?" he boasted tauntingly, knowing that he had proven his point.

"No, stay away from me!" Yumi said in increasing alarm as she continued to thrash at her bindings as the man got closer, "Don't come any closer!"

However the man just laughed and Yumi felt a growing sense of urgency as a wave of crippling terror established its hold over her and then suddenly, without even thinking, she let out a very loud and ear-piercing scream.

* * *

><p>Back in the cavern where Euphemia and the others were, they all heard Yumi's scream echoing off the walls.<p>

"What was that?" James asked curiously.

"Sounded like someone screaming," Terrance said with a tone of concern as he wondered just who it could be and if they were in need of help.

"That wasn't just anyone," Euphemia said in an alarmed tone that had a sense of dire urgency in it, "That was…"

"Yumi!" Zukasu finished as he also realised who it was.

However, before anyone could react, Euphemia had already rushed round to the other side of the depression and ran down another corridor that had been hidden from view by a huge boulder.

"Hey, Euphie, wait up!" Abigail called out as she started to run after her.

"Are you sure that it was Yumi?" James asked curiously, "I mean, we left Yumi outside, how could she have gotten past us without us knowin'?"

"Even if it's not Yumi, someone may be in trouble and in serious need of help," Terrance replied as he started after his sister.

"It was Yumi," Zukasu stated, "I just know it."

"Oh, Yumi, what have you gotten yourself into?" Blair thought with a growing sense of dread as she started to ponder possible reasons why the Japanese girl would scream.

However, just as the group reached the corridor that Euphemia had run down, a fierce wind started to pick up and blew then all away from the corridor and across the room.

"H-hey, what gives?" James asked in confusion, "Just what the hell happened?"

"Search me," Terrance said in equal confusion.

However, just as everyone managed to pick themselves up and recover from their brief disorientation, a black mist suddenly came rolling out from the corridor that they had just been blown away from and Blair's eyes widened in shock and horror as she recognised the black mist.

"No, it can't be," she thought in pure horror and disbelief, "It just can't be."

However, despite the blackness of the mist and how dark it was in the cavern, everyone could just barely make out the familiar rectangular shapes of Duel Monsters cards. Unfortunately, before they could ponder this, the cards within the mist started to cluster together and the mist the started to take on a human shape and then a man identical to the two men with the man in the trenchcoat that held Yumi captive materialised.

"Greetings, friends of Euphemia," the man greeted and Blair's eyes widened in horror at seeing her worst fears being confirmed, "I am Trueman."

"Trueman, what sort of a name is that?" James asked in confusion, "And just how'd you appear like that?"

"And unfortunately for you, this is as far as you all go," Trueman went on, completely ignoring James's questions.

"This guy obviously isn't real," James said dismissively, "Okay, joke's over, come out."

Trueman then turned towards James and frowned, feeling rather offended at the boy's dismissal of him.

"I don't know, James, he seems very real to me," Abigail said with a shiver as she could not help but notice that since Trueman's arrival, the temperature in the cavern had apparently plummeted and she found herself tensing up and rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms since she had no sleeves.

"How can he be real?" James asked simply, "I mean, just look at his entrance. That's just plain impossible. He must be a hologram or something."

"I'm not so sure," Terrance said as he looked around the cavern for any possible places where a holographic projector could possibly be well-hidden from view, but could find nothing, "Remember what we were discussing earlier, about that time Duel Monsters holograms seemed to run amuck?"

"Come on, that's was all just a publicity stunt," James scoffed in a dismissive tone, "I don't know how this guy managed to pull it off, but if he's not a hologram, then he's obviously good with smoke and mirrors."

"I can pretty much assure you that I am indeed as real as you are," Trueman spoke up in an insulted tone, clearly not happy at being blown off, "And as I already said, you're not proceeding any further."

"What do you mean?" Zukasu asked as his eyes narrowed, fearing that this man had done something to Euphemia and Yumi, "And just what did you do to Euphie and Yumi? It was you who made Yumi scream, wasn't it. You've kidnapped her, haven't you?"

Abigail's eyes widened as she was reminded of her own kidnapping ordeal and then could not help but remember what Yumi had said about being kidnapped, though she had been joking around. However, she could not help but worry over the fate of the Japanese girl as a feeling of pure dread suddenly washed over her as she fear that something bad had happened to her friend. Sure, she remembered her own ordeal in which she had been rather fortunate and despite still hating Amanda for kidnapping her, she had discovered that Amanda had absolutely no intentions of hurting her and would have released her eventually. Unfortunately, Yumi's kidnapper was not a disgruntled Academy applicant looking to get enrolled and undoubtedly, the Japanese girl would not be as lucky as she was. Abigail had been fortunate. Yumi, unfortunately had not been so lucky and the bespectacled girl knew that Yumi probably would not get off as lightly as she had and it brought her back to when Professor Shizuki had scolded her for confronting Amanda the previous night in which she had told her just how fortunate she had been. That night she had sent her brother and James on ahead while she investigated something she thought she had seen and had demanded that someone show themselves, which caused Amanda to burst into a run from her hiding place. What Professor Shizuki had been trying to tell her was that, supposing that it had not been Amanda at all and someone else; someone else with more sinister and unfriendly intentions. It was then she realised that had that been the case, she may have ended up in the same situation Yumi was now in and since no one would have known that she had gone missing, the outcome could have been rather drastic.

"That is correct," Trueman said, answering Zukasu's question, "Miss Fujiharu is nothing more than the bait to lure in Euphemia."

"What, you mean that Euphie's the target?" Terrance said in astonishment.

"How do you know Euphie's name?" Zukasu said, feeling rather uneasy over the way Trueman had mentioned Euphemia's name.

The way he had used Euphemia's name; it had suggested that he was familiar with her, like he knew her.

"That's what I want to know," Blair thought, having similar thoughts, "Just what does Nightshroud want with Euphemia and come to think of it. This all just seems a bit too convenient. We go out to the Abandoned Dorm and Euphie just so happens to find a book that documents Nightshroud and Nightshroud's name is the only word in the text that hasn't become affected by the elements and then Euphie just so happens to acquire a Shadow Charm that refuses to part with her. Something's clearly not right here. How can Trueman be so familiar with Euphie and even if he somehow managed to return, wouldn't he be more interested in gaining revenge against Jaden?"

She knew that Nightshroud had to be involved in this. That much was plainly obvious. The fact that Trueman was here was proof of that. Trueman had been Nightshroud's emissary and who had been the one who had dragged the world's populace to Nightshroud's World of Darkness. Nightshroud had left Trueman to carry out his plan and only got involved personally because Jaden had defeated his host, whom, as she understood it, only had a portion of Nightshroud's soul embedded within him. However, the question remained, just how did Nightshroud manage to amass such a huge amount of power in such a short space of time as Nightshroud's power had been tied to the darkness in people's hearts and even if Nightshroud had warned of his possible return, there was no way that he could have amassed such a massive amount of power in such a short space of time and even more troubling, instead of targeting Jaden in a bid for vengeance like the pre-teen would have figured he would have done, it seemed that he decided to target Euphemia for some reason. Of course, she knew that Jaden had recommended Euphemia to the Duel Academy and it could just be a case of targeting her to get to Jaden, but somehow, Blair doubted that very much and for some reason, she just could not think of why.

"It matters not," Trueman said in response to Zukasu's question, "All that's certain is that you're not going any further. The boss will deal with Euphemia."

He then raised his left arm, which suddenly became surrounded by black mist and then a duel tray suddenly grew out of the side of his arm with each monster space being represented by a light grey square with a smaller rectangle merged into the outer side and each space with a long protruding spike separating them and the bottom of each space had a reddish orange outline running along it. In fact, each individual space had the appearance of webbed skin and his duel try looked more like a bat's wing and above each monster space was an opening, apparently, the spell/trap slots. Also on the top of his arm part of his jumpsuit appeared to rise slightly and a deck of Duel Monsters cards appeared, stuck halfway inside the protruding portion of his jumpsuit.

"Gross," Abigail said as she covered her mouth as she felt a sudden wave of nausea hit her.

"Wow, that's just freaky," James said, completely stunned.

"You know," Terrance said as he studied Trueman closer, "Now that I think about it, I can't help but think that perhaps I may have seen this guy somewhere before."

"Yeah, I get that feeling as well," Abigail said with a cringe.

"The J-Man also feels that he's seen him before," James added.

"You do?" Terrance said as he turned to give his friend a questioning look.

"Yeah, but the J-Man can't remember where, though," James replied simply.

"Us to," Abigail said in admission.

"Wait, you want to duel?" Zukasu said, surprised at Trueman's gesture, though he was curious as to how he managed to "grow" a duel disk out of his arm.

"Of course, my mission is to keep you from interfering in my boss's confrontation with Euphemia," Trueman said simply.

"But, through duelling, I mean come on, there are other ways to keep us occupied," Zukasu said, completely at a loss as to why Trueman felt the necessity to duel, "Why don't you just kill us and be done with it?"

"I will duel you," Trueman said in a tone of finality, seeming to disregard Zukasu's question, "And it'll be a Shadow Game in which when you loss, you will be taken to the World of Darkness in which you will live out your darkness for all of eternity."

"Okay," Zukasu said as he activated his duel disk and both him and Trueman went down into the depression and stood inside the two small circles, facing one another, "I still say that you're better off just killing us without resorting to duelling."

"Zukasu, don't give him ideas!" Terrance shouted towards him.

"I think you'll find that a Shadow Game will be more effective," Trueman replied simply, "And get ready because the monsters in this duel are real and not holograms."

"Yeah, yeah, if you say so," Zukasu said, uncaringly waving off his claim as he drew five cards.

"Sceptical, are we?" Trueman asked as he also drew five cards.

"Of course," Zukasu replied in an uncaringly tone, "I've heard of all this mumbo-jumbo about Shadow Games and the like, but they're not true. I will admit that all legends had a seed of truth in them somewhere, but I don't honestly believe in the supernatural and believe that Shadow Games are just hyped up nonsense told by people who were too primitive to understand what they were truly seeing."

"Well then, Mr Rikuguru, allow me to prove you wrong," Trueman chuckled and then his expression became serious, "But enough talk."

"Couldn't agree with you more," Zukasu said in agreement.

"DUEL!" both duellists yelled in unison.

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Trueman**: 4000

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, while Zukasu and Trueman started their duel, James, Blair, Terrance and Abigail all rushed to the side of the depression.<p>

"You don't suppose that this guy is right about this being a Shadow Game, do you?" Abigail asked nervously as she continued to shiver, clearly not wanting to believe Trueman, but wondering if what he had said was true.

"Don't be silly," James scoffed dismissively, "He's bluffin'. He's just tryin' to intimidate us, as all."

"But don't you feel it?" Abigail asked, sounding frustrated at her friend's constant dismissals.

"Feel what?" the grey-haired boy asked.

"Abi, you're shivering," Terrance spoke up in a concerned tone as he noticed his sister shaking, "Are you cold?"

"Huh?" James said as he also noticed that Abigail was shivering as he studied her closely, "Hey, you are shiverin', what's up?"

"Don't you guys feel it?" Abigail asked, causing her brother and friend to stare at her in confusion, "Ever since that guy showed up, it feels as if this place suddenly became a freezer."

Terrance then paused for a bit, considering how to reply, but then he suddenly started to feel the chill in the air.

"Now that you mention it, it does seem to have gotten a bit chilly in here," he said as he started to notice the change in temperature.

"Yeah, the J-Man feels it to," James admitted as he also felt it, but then returned to his dismissive attitude, "I doubt this guy's actin' alone. Probably has someone operatin' a temperature control thingy."

"You mean a thermostat, don't you?" Terrance said as he glared at his friend, not happy that he was clearly denying the possibility that it was all real, but Terrance knew that he could not really blame him since hardly anyone believed in the supernatural.

However, Terrance did suspect that somehow, this man was the real deal and he could see that his sister was also thinking along the same wavelength. He did not know what it was, but somehow, just looking at Trueman made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He just seemed to give off this creepy vibe that caused his blood to run cold and he could not help but let out a fearful shiver. There was also the issue of the room's temperature. Like Abigail had said, since Trueman's arrival, the temperature had apparently seemed to plummet and though he did agree with the possibility of James's assessment, the way Abigail had caused him to notice the difference in temperature; from the way she had been speaking and the way she had been shivering, it was clear that the drop in temperature had been an instant drop and not a gradual one, which ruled out the use of a thermostat since had there been a thermostat, the drop would have been a gradual affair and not an instant one. Of course, since Trueman's arrival and witnessing what he was capable of, Terrance had been looking around the cavern, searching for anything that could possibly explain how they could be mere tricks and illusions, paying close attention to anywhere in which it would be rather easy to hide equipment, but nothing had stood out and with that in mind, he could not help but agree that this was indeed a real-live supernatural phenomenon.

* * *

><p>On the duel field Trueman chuckled as he drew a sixth card.<p>

"I hope you don't mind if I go first," he said in a tone of mock inquiring as he looked at the cards in his hand, which consisted of Zero Gazer, Power Gift, Armageddon Knight, Dark Archetype, Spirit Ryu and Spear Dragon, which he had just drawn.

"Sure," Zukasu said simply with a nod, "Be my guest."

Trueman nodded with a smirk.

"You're too kind," he replied in a mockingly thankful tone.

He then reached for his Armageddon Knight card and placed in it in the middle monster space of his duel tray, which was effectively also part of his arm.

"First I summon Armageddon Knight in attack mode," he announced as the Armageddon Knight (1400/1200) appeared on the field, materialising from a glow of light that moulded into its shape.

The monster on the field looked human with long dark blackish brown hair, pure white skin and black eyes that covered the entirely of its eyeballs. The knight wore a long red bandana round the lower part of its face and went flowing out behind it and it also wore brown armour with brownish silver plating over its shoulders with the front portion of its chest coming to a point in a V shape. There were also cupped plates strapped over the sides of the shoulders with holes dotted in them and small rectangular plates with a small hole dotted at each corner, each on attached to one another looping round the sides of the arms and over the hands were metal gloves, the same colour as the plates. It also had a brown belt round its waist with a brownish silver buckle at the front and holes running round the entire length with brownish silver rims for each hole. There were also rectangular plates attached to the sides of the hips, running down to the thighs and running up to the knees were a pair of brownish silver metal segmented boots. The monster was also armed with a sword in its right hand with a rounded, bowl shaped guard with the handle coming out from the inside of the "bowl and the blade on coming out from the other side opposite and from the handle, a small part of metal came out, looping over the top of the hand and then meeting up with the edge of the "bowl" and the piece of metal also had three holes grafted into its sides with three spikes sticking out from the top above each hole.

"And whenever Armageddon Knight is summoned to the field, I can take one dark-attribute monster from my deck and send it to my graveyard," Trueman went one as a single card moved out from his deck, as if it had developed a mind of its own and Trueman took it and smirked when it turned out to be Masked Beast Des Gardius and then placed it over the top of the centre of his duel tray and then the card moved into his arm as if it were moving into a graveyard slot and Trueman appeared to absorb the card. He then took his Zero Gazer card and inserted it into the middle spell/trop slot.

"I then place one card facedown and end my turn," he concluded, "Now then, Mr Rikuguru, let's see what you got."

* * *

><p>"Did he just…" Abigail said as she felt another wave of nausea was over her as she witnessed how Trueman absorbed the card that he supposedly sent to his graveyard.<p>

"That is just messed up," James said in disbelief, "Good thing he's just a hologram, though."

"Hologram, if he's a hologram, then just how, prey-tell, is he conducting this duel?" Terrance demanded with a glare.

"Well I…" James said, before realising that he did not know what to say.

"Wanna dissect him to find out what's inside his body?" Terrance went on in a mocking tone as he believed that his friend had run out of things to say that pointed towards this being just a trick.

"Terry, shut up," Abigail said, shooting her brother a glare as she made it clear that she did not appreciate his taunt, even if it was not directed at her, "Please don't mention things like that. I'm in danger of losing my meal from earlier."

"Sorry, Abi," the redhead apologised.

"It has to be some kind of trick," James said after finally thinking up of a response, causing both Richardson Twins and Blair, who remained silent off to the side to groan in frustration.

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Zukasu drew a sixth card and then looked at his hand, which held Yggdrasil Drive Explosion, Knightmare Frame: Glasgow, Jousting Lance, Assault Rifle Knightmare Frame: Lancelot and Knightmare Shield, which he just drew.<p>

"Okay, first off, I summon my Knightmare Frame: Glasgow in attack mode," he said as he took his Knightmare Frame: Glasgow (1400/1000) card and placed it on the middle monster space of his duel disk and the downsized mecha appeared on the field in a manner similar to the Armageddon Knight.

"I hope you realise that both our monsters are equal in terms of the number of attack points," Trueman pointed out, "If they do battle, they'll end up destroying one another."

* * *

><p>"Wow," James said from the side-lines, clearly in awe over Zukasu's mecha monster, "Now the J-Man understands why Stella dubs him, Mecha-freak."<p>

"Hey, hold on," Abigail said as she realised something, "I've never of that monster before."

"That's right," Terrance said in realisation as he came to the same conclusion, "I don't recall ever seeing a card with that name in any of the registries that list all known cards in the game of Duel Monsters."

"Huh, come again?" James said in confusion.

"All cards known in the game of Duel Monsters are listed in a registry," Abigail started to explain, "Well… there are several registries, but they all pretty must document the same cards. These registries are all kept under lock and key in the mainframes of both Kaiba Corp and Industrial Illusions, though the public has access to hard copies."

"That's all good, but what has this got to do with Zukasu's monster?" James asked curiously.

"These registries are supposed to help identify each individual card," Terrance went on as Abigail took a break, "Each card has its own individual registration number that makes it unique. Even if there are two copies of the same card, each individual card has its own unique registration number."

"It's supposed to help in preventing the playing with illegal and counterfeit cards," Abigail went on as Terrance took his turn at taking a break from talking, "Basically, what happens is that the registry is programmed into each duel disk and whenever each card is played, the program scans the card's registration number and then sorts through the registry looking for a match."

"And any cards that are deemed illegal or in the event that no match is found, the duel disk will not recognise the card and therefore, no hologram will be projected," Terrance concluded.

"And even though duel disks can be reprogrammed, each duel disk is fitted with an alarm system that's linked to Kaiba Corp's mainframe," Abigail said as James opened his mouth to speak and she knew what he was going to say, "So anyone who tampers with their duel disk; Kaiba Corp can easily shut it down and take it offline, making it impossible to duel using that duel disk."

"Wow, that's just… wow," James said, completely stunned at what he just learned and he had to admit that he did not know that, "But then what do you mean, that Zukasu's monster's a fake?"

"This is indeed puzzling," Terrance said as he looked down at the Glasgow Knightmare Frame, "I've never seen that monster before and I don't recall ever coming across it in the list of cards that can be used in the game and yet, his duel disk recognises it and not only that, but his duel disk is still functioning, which indicates that it hasn't been shut down."

"Yeah, that is weird," James admitted with a nod, "You don't suppose he somehow managed ta rig the disk in such a way that Kaiba Corp wouldn't be able to detect it?"

"He'd have to be an amazing genius to pull that off," Terrance said as he continued his gaze, "Seto Kaiba is an extraordinary genius with computers and has backup program after backup program in place ready to deal with hackers that try to weasel their way round Kaiba Corp's computer programs. It's very difficult and highly unlikely that Zukasu would be able to outsmart them all. Heck, me and my sister both have an IQ over one hundred, making us both geniuses and yet, even if we put our heads together, even we wouldn't be able to get round all of Kaiba Corp's defences. Even if he did somehow manage to get round one, another one would be waiting in the wings, ready to act."

"So what does this mean?" James asked curiously as he looked down at Zukasu in disbelief, unable to believe that he may be duelling with counterfeit cards.

"Who knows?" Abigail said with a sigh.

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Zukasu cringed after overhearing his friends' conversation as he had to admit that they did have a point. Zukasu was not stupid. He knew that his cards were not part of the Duel Monsters registries and he knew that by all rights, his duel disk should not recognise them and yet, his duel disk did indeed recognise them as if they were legitimate cards. He had known that Duel Academy had confiscated his duel disk and had replaced it with another one when they believed he didn't know after his duel with Stella and he knew that they had obviously sent it off to Kaiba Corp to have it examined and eventually when they returned it, it was clear that they could find nothing wrong with it and that had him stumped. He knew that he did not tamper with his duel disk and yet his cards seemed to suggest that he had done and he knew that it would undoubtedly cast doubt on him and that upset him immensely as he feared that it would cost him his friends.<p>

Anyway, shaking his head, deciding to sort this out later, he decided to proceed with the duel as he reached for his Assault Rifle card and placed it in the spell/trap slot to the left of the middle.

"I realise that," he said, responding to Trueman's last comment, "However, I play the spell card, Assault Rifle."

The card appeared on the field and the assault rifle depicted in the card flew out of the card and into the hands of Zukasu's Glasgow (1900/1000)

"And by equipping my Glasgow with this, it gains an additional five hundred attack points," he went on, "And now, Glasgow, attack his Armageddon Knight with Machinegun Barrage."

In response, the Glasgow aimed the assault rifle at the Armageddon Knight and fired it.

"I activate the trap, Zero Gazer," Trueman said as he brought his hand over his facedown card, which rose up.

The image depicted on the card a man in armour, armed with a sword surrounded by an orange aura and he looked as if he was struggling to stand up above him were a pair of white eyes with huge red pupils and both eyes were surrounded by a golden auras, making it clear that they were what was weakening the warrior.

"Whenever my opponent declares an attack, I can activate Zero Gazer, which automatically reduces the targeted monster's attack points to zero," Trueman explained as Armageddon Knight (0/1200) cringed at losing its attack points.

However this failed to stop the Glasgow's attack and the Armageddon fight was hit with a barrage of bullets from the Glasgow's assault rifle, causing it to thrash around in the air wildly as it was lifted off its feet and then it shattered into glowing bright light particles and disappeared.

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Trueman**: 2100

* * *

><p>"Huh, what gives?" James asked no one in particular in confusion, "Why'd he do that? He just gave Zukasu a massive lead."<p>

"Maybe it's part of his strategy," Terrance hypothesised as he analysed the situation, "You see, despite Zero Gazer's negative effect, as soon as the targeted monster is destroyed, its owner can then draw a card from their deck."

"Also, some duellists are notorious for letting their opponents getting in a few good hits at their life points," Abigail added, putting in her own two cents, "It's a strategy designed to lull their opponents into a false sense of security. You recall Euphie's first duel with Stella, don't you?"

James nodded.

"Well, Stella was like that," the bespectacled girl went on, "She had let Euphie take away a good chunk of her life points before springing her trap. However, in Stella's case, it had backfired spectacularly on her as Euphie was able to end the duel before she had a chance to summon her more powerful monsters. However, Stella's not the only duellist to go for that strategy. Get your opponent to drop their guard by making them believe they've won. Make them believe that they're just one turn away from winning and then spring a trap on them and in most cases, their opponents are usually so confident and cocky that when the trap is sprung, they normally have no idea what hit them."

"Oh, I see," James said with a nod.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Blair thought, still remaining silent as she analysed the duel for yourself, "That's one of Trueman's strategies, alright."

She did recall how her own duel with Trueman had gone the previous year. Trueman had let her score the duelling equivalent of first-blood; in other words, being the first duellist to score a hit at their opponent's life points and at first, he had seemed to be duelling pretty badly, making seemingly stupid and pointless moves, but just as she had been so sure of her victory, like Abigail had said, he then sprung a massive trap on her and also, like the bespectacled girl had said, she had no idea what hit her. The only duellist she knew to have ever beaten Trueman in a duel was Jaden and from what she remembered hearing from Jaden about his encounters with Trueman, the first time they crossed paths, Trueman had tried the same strategy, only that time, it had backfired and Jaden won fairly easily. The second time Trueman and Jaden crossed paths, Trueman still stuck to that strategy, albeit in a slightly different way and even though Jaden did have a tougher time, he still won. It was only when he and Trueman faced off for a third time that Trueman had abandoned that strategy and settled for trying to finish Jaden as quickly as possible and from what she could tell from what Jaden told her of each of his individual encounters with Trueman in the past, each time Trueman was beaten, his deck seemed to evolve and grow more powerful. In other words, each time someone encountered Trueman and defeated him, it only made him even harder to defeat the next time they crossed paths.

"I really hope you know what you're in for, Zukasu," she thought as she gave the prep-school graduate a worried look, "Even if you do manage to defeat him, should you both cross paths in future, he'll be even harder to beat."

* * *

><p>"And once the monster targeted by Zero Gazer has been destroyed, I get to draw one card from my deck," Trueman said as he drew a card that turned out to be Monster Reborn.<p>

"I end my turn," Zukasu announced as he glared at Trueman, knowing what he was up to, "And don't think I know what you're up to. You're trying to lull me into a false sense of security, aren't you; making me think I have the duel won before springing a trap on me."

Trueman just chuckled sinisterly as he was quite impressed by Zukasu's deduction.

"It matters not whether you figured it out or not," he stated simply in a calm tone, "The end result will be the same. Anyway, it's my draw."

He then drew a card, which turned out to be Tyrant Dragon, which caused him to grin.

"With this along with Masked Beast Des Gardius in the graveyard, even if I'm not able to summon him, Tyrant Dragon will be a nice backup," Trueman thought to himself as he reached for his Dark Archetype card and placed in on the monster space to the right of the one in the middle.

"I summon Dark Archetype in attack mode," Trueman said as Dark Archetype (1400/400) appeared on the field in a similar manner as Armageddon Knight and Zukasu's Glasgow

The monster that appeared on the field had a black body with a red underside and a whip-like tail. It also had four huge greenish brown legs, each with three claws the same colour as its legs and at above the joint at where the legs bent were bluish green dome-shaped orbs. It also had a dark gold metal ring attached to the front of its body with four protrusions; one at each upper and lower side with each protrusion had a thick blue wire running out from them to the area of the legs that was above each joint. Inside the diameter of the metal ring was a mass of purple skin and in the centre was the monster's dome-shaped helmeted head the same greenish brown colour as its legs and at the front of the helmet were two holes, each one with a glow yellow eye.

Trueman then reached for his Power Gift card and placed it in the middle spell/trap slot on his duel tray. The image of the card had a variety of blues and purples as a background depicted as lines coming from a Rocket Warrior surrounded by a yellow aura with two goblins that were normally part of the Goblin Attack Force looking on in awe and also in the image was a pair of human hands at the bottom, one hand was holding onto a device with a dial and the other hand was turning the dial as a needle gave readings al a semi-circular reader.

"And then I activate the spell card, Power Gift," Trueman went on as he detailed his turn, "And with this card, I can target one of your monsters and discard a monster from my hand and then the targeted monster receives the discarded monsters attack points."

"Huh, excuse me, what?" Zukasu said in confusion.

Trueman ignored him as he selected his Spear Dragon and like before, absorbed it into his arm and Zukasu's Glasgow (3300/1000) felt the empowering force of Trueman's Power Gift card.

"And now, my Dark Archetype, attack Mr Rikuguru's Glasgow," Trueman ordered as he pointed at the Glasgow.

Dark Archetype lunged towards the Glasgow, confusing Zukasu.

"Just what on Earth are you doing?" he asked, completely astonished as his seemingly reckless move, "My Glasgow has way more attack points that your Archetype."

"I know," Trueman said simply as Zukasu's Glasgow opened fire on the Dark Archetype, destroying it.

**Zukasu**: 4000 – **Trueman**: 700

* * *

><p>"Wow, just what the hell?" James asked in confusion, "That's twice he's let Zukasu take a hit at his life points, is this guy tryin' ta lose on purpose?"<p>

"Somehow, I doubt it," Terrance said as he analysed the situation, "Remember what I said earlier, about lulling opponents into a false sense of security?"

"Well, yeah, but I never thought he'd do that twice in a row," James replied.

"He obviously has something planned," Abigail pointed out.

"Hey, I just thought of something," James said as if he made a realisation, "What if he doesn't care if he wins or loses, but has every intention of killin' us anyway?"

Both Richardson Twins' eyes widened in shock as they came to that same realisation.

"You know, you may have something there," Abigail said, still rather shaken at this revelation.

"Well that would be very difficult, since counting Blair, there's five of us and only one of him," Terrance pointed out simply, "All we have to do is scatter or gang up on him."

"The J-Man's for ganin' up on 'im," James said as he slammed his right fist into his open left.

"Do you think that would work?" Abigail asked curiously as she also pondered the idea.

"Who knows, but it's definitely worth a try," Terrance said as he agreed with James, "Then we can hand him over to campus security and Duel Academy can have the police come and ship him off to jail."

"Provided somebody doesn't pull strings to force Duel Academy into dropping the charges," Abigail stated bitterly as she recalled how Amanda got away with kidnapping her due to her father's interference.

* * *

><p>"And now that your Glasgow has made an attack, the other effect of Power Gift kicks in and destroys the monster targeted by Power Gift," Trueman explained as the downsized Knightmare exploded and Zukasu had to admit that he was surprised that he felt a shockwave almost push him back and he also could have sworn that he felt the warmth from the fire caused by the explosion as well.<p>

However, debris from the destroyed mecha flew everywhere around the cavern, causing Zukasu's eyes to widen as he noticed how the debris flew out with the range of the holographic projector and yet still remained visible.

* * *

><p>Back on the side-lines, everyone else's eyes widened in awe as they witnessed the Glasgow explode and seemed to light up the entire cavern, but it was so brief that they believed that it was possible that they imagined it. However, a piece of flying debris came flying right up at them and narrowly just missed slamming into James's head, though he did feel the force as it passed right by him and heard a thunderous crash as the debris slammed into the wall behind them and James suddenly brought his hands up to his left cheek where the debris had passed as he felt a stinging pain in his cheek and upon feeling something wet, he immediately withdrew his hand and brought in in front of his face and his eyes widened in shock as he saw a familiar crimson-coloured liquid on his hand and realised what it was.<p>

"I guess it wasn't a total miss," Terrance said in shock as he noticed blood rolling down his friend's cheek from a scar left by the piece of debris as it passed by having obviously cut him as it passed.

"Oh shit!" James said as a new and horrifying realisation washed over him and filled him with pure terror, "Oh shit, oh shit, that was real!"

"It seems so," Abigail said in shock as she came to the same realisation.

"No way, how's that possible!" James said, completely in denial, "This ain't real, it can't be real."

"Well, unfortunately, suffice to say, the evidence seems to point to the contrary," Terrance noted simply as he folded his arms and gave his friend a rather, somewhat cocky "I told you so" look, "That was definitely no hologram that cut you."

"Terry, you're not helping," Abigail scolded, shooting her brother a glare.

"No, this is a nightmare," James said as he shut his eyes, still in denial and clearly so gripped by his fear that he had forgotten the others' presence, "This is a nightmare and when I open my eyes, I'll be in my bed and this will all be a really bad dream."

However, when he opened his eyes again and saw that he was still in the cavern with the others and that his cheek was still in pain and spilling blood, he suddenly felt his terror increase as he let out a rather loud, ear-piercing scream and then made a run for the exit.

"James, wait!" Abigail called out, but unfortunately James was too caught up in his own fear to have heard her.

However, when he reached the exit, he found that that it was blocked by the same black mist that Trueman had materialised from, but he did not care, he just had to get out, he had to get away from this place. He just could not believe that it was all real. He wanted it all to just be one big horrible dream. He wanted to wake up and find himself back in the Ra Yellow Dorm and was getting ready for the following day's classes. However, as soon as he ran through the black mist, instead of finding himself in the corridor leading to the surface, he found himself still in the cavern, only staring at Blair, Abigail and Terrance and was standing behind them just outside the corridor that Euphemia had run down.

"No way!" he exclaimed fearfully as he started to hyperventilate.

"Huh, James?" Terrance said in confusion as he looked back at the exit that James had run through, "How'd you get back here?"

"I don't know," James said as Terrance's question managed to find its way through his fear-infested brain.

He then turned and ran down saw that the corridor that Euphemia had run down was also blocked by black mist. However, he decided to run into the mist anyway and found that he was still in the cavern, only right back at the exit to the surface.

"Wow, this is…" Terrance said as his eyes widened at the horrifying realisation, "We're trapped!"

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Zukasu and Trueman had both witnessed James's episode and Trueman then suddenly burst into what could only be described as insane maniacal laughter.<p>

"Yes," he said in a rather triumphant tone, glad that they had finally realised the seriousness of their plight, "That's right, you're all trapped here and once I defeat Mr Rikuguru, here, you're all next."

"What?" Zukasu said as his eyes widened in shock as he noticed the black mist that seemed to loom into the corridor that led to the surface and saw James pass through it, "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you," Trueman said with a smirk, "You see, as I said, you're all trapped here. As soon as the duel had gotten underway, I immediately had the exits to this room sealed and so, until the duel is concluded, no one's getting in or out of here."

"You sealed the cavern off from the outside world?" Zukasu said in astonishment, though he had to admit that he was a bit fearful at the same time.

"Yes," Trueman confirmed with a nod, "And the only way you'll ever be able to leave is to defeat me."

"Sounds easy enough," Zukasu said simply.

"Oh, really?" Trueman taunted with a laugh, "Don't be so sure. Anyway, on with the duel. My Dark Archetype has a special ability that lets my summon a monster from my hand with attack points equal to the amount of battle damage I received from its destruction so long as I discards monsters from my hand those total level equals the level of the monster I intend to summon. However, fortunately for you, I have no monsters in my hand with nineteen hundred attack points, so consider yourself lucky since now, I end my turn."

"That's a big risk you took," Zukasu pointed out, "You only have seven hundred life points left and with no monsters on the field and my turn coming up, all I need to do is summon a monster and you're finished. I'll admit, I have one monster with attack points lower than seven hundred, but the odds of drawing it are rather slim and let me let you in on a little something that has to do with my Glasgow. You're also fortunate that it was destroyed as a result of your Power Gift card and not as a result of battle because if it had been, I would have been able to have summoned a level-four or lower monster with Knightmare Frame in its name so long as it had nineteen hundred attack points or lower."

"Then draw your card," Trueman stated smugly, as if confident that he was going to get out of this, "And we'll see if the risk I took was worth it or not."

"Gladly," Zukasu said as he drew his next card and then groaned as he saw that he drew, Knightmare Call.

"Bad draw?" Trueman taunted sadistically.

Zukasu then inserted his Knightmare Call card into the middle spell/trap slot of his duel disk.

"I place this card facedown and end my turn," he stated.

* * *

><p>"What, that's it?" Abigail said in surprise.<p>

"I guess, there's not much he can else he can do," Terrance summarised as he analysed the situation, "He must've had a bad draw."

"Come on, Zukasu, you have to win!" James shouted down at him, "You have to beat this guy! I don't wanna die down here!"

"So I guess it's true then, huh?" Abigail said to her brother as she looked into his eyes fearfully, "Not only does the supernatural exist and Zukasu's trapped in the grips of a Shadow Game, but if he loses, we'll all be subjected to a penalty game, is that how it goes?"

Terrance nodded as he knew that lying to her would be pointless.

"Uh huh, from what I heard about Shadow Games, the loser is always subjected to a Penalty Game," he started to explain, "However, Penalty Games vary, depending on the person who induces it. In most cases, those who lose Shadow Games are banished to the Shadow Realm, but Penalty Games can also be something as minor as an irritating rash that refuses to go away right up to death itself. However, some Penalty Games are so terrifying; so horrific that compared to them, death would be the preferable option. The good news here is that we may not die. However, the bad news is that compared to what this guy could put us through, the fact that we may not die may in fact be bad news in itself."

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Trueman drew a card from his deck, which turned out to be, Pot of Greed.<p>

"This could help," he thought as he placed in into the far left spell/trap slot of his duel tray.

"I play the spell card, Pot of Greed," he announced as the image on the card appeared on the field and gave a really sinister laugh as it started to emit a golden glow round its form, "And with this, I'm allowed to draw two cards from my deck."

"I know full-well what it does," Zukasu stated in frustration, as he witnessed Trueman draw two cards, "Pot of Greed is one of the most common cards in the game. Whoever it was who decided that players had to announce their moves and explain their cards' effects as they play them should be taken out to pasture and shot."

Trueman ignored him as he took a look at his cards that he drew and a rather evil grin materialised onto his face as he saw that he had drawn Cost Down and Double Summon and then reached for his Spirit Ryu card.

"Just what I need to end this duel," he thought as he placed Spirit Ryu (1000/1000) on the middle monster space.

"First I summon Spirit Ryu to field," he announced as the monster appeared on the field.

The monster itself was a huge serpentine like dragon with a bluish purple head with two pairs of red eyes and a green ovular orb with a red outline embedded in the area between the eyes. It also had a pair of wings attached to the sides of its head with creamy yellowish white webbing and three lines, similar to the lines that separated to the webbing in bats' wings running horizontally with dark green hooked claws at the bottom and a dark green spike sticking up from the centre of the top of each wing and also with looked like a vertebrae running down the back of its body, though it stopped at quarter of the way along. Its serpentine body was the same colour as the webbing of its wings, but three quarters of the way along its bottom was what looked like a second head, the same blue purple colour at its front head with a round red eye at each side and two hooked shaped ears; one sticking up from either side and sticking out the other side of its "second head" was its tail.

"However, I don't intend to keep him round for long as I now play the spell cards, Double Summon and Cost Down," He said as he placed both cards into the spell/trap slot at either side of the one in the middle and both cards appeared on the field and started to emit a bright golden glow that temporarily lit up the entire cavern.

"With Double Summon, I'm allowed to normal summon a second monster this turn," Trueman announced triumphantly, "And Cost Down automatically lowers the levels of all monsters in my hand by a factor of to, so my Tyrant Dragon is now a level-six monster."

"But first, you have to discard one card from your hand, before its effect can activate," Zukasu pointed out, remembering seeing Euphemia play the same card in the past.

"Fine," Trueman said, sounding a bit surprised and disgruntled as he discarded his Monster Reborn card, causing Zukasu to cringe as he also felt rather nauseous at witnessing the card enter his arm, "And now, I sacrifice my Spirit Ryu in order to summon my Tyrant Dragon."

As he spoke, instead of reaching for his Spirit Ryu card, the Spirit Ryu card appeared to transform into a golden light before vanishing and its real-life representation followed suit and then Trueman placed his Tyrant Dragon card in the same monster space that Spirit Ryu had vacated and then Tyrant Dragon (2900/2500) appeared on the field, letting out a rather load roar at Zukasu.

The monster was basically a long necked dragon with a brownish orange head with red eyes and four spikes sticking out the side with dark greyish purple webbing in between and two dark greyish blue horns sticking up from the top of its head. Its body was the same colour as the webbing in between the spikes at the side of its head. However its back and tail were the same colour as its head and it also had a pair of wings with a spike jutting out at the top in the centre and two lines running vertically down each wing and it also had five curved claws on each foot.

"Now, Tyrant Dragon," Trueman ordered in a demanding as he pointed at Zukasu, "Attack Mr Rikuguru directly.

In response, Tyrant Dragon lunged at Zukasu and then raised its front right leg and brought it down in a violent swipe that sent Zukasu flying to the wall of the depression and Zukasu just could not help but give out a loud scream as, unlike with the regular duels in which the pain only lasted a few seconds, since it was a phantom sensation brought on by the realism of the holograms, the pain this time did not subside and it felt rather excruciating. Zukasu winced as he moved to get up, but felt an overwhelming burning sensation from where Tyrant Dragon had slashed him and he stumbled to his knees as he fought to keep standing.

**Zukasu**: 1100 – **Trueman**: 700

* * *

><p>"Oh no, Zukasu!" James shouted in a mad panic as he was still fretting over the realisation that they were trapped, "Come on, you have to win! I don't want to be banished to the Shadow Realm!"<p>

He honestly could not believe what was happening. He had followed Terrance and Abigail, curious as to what they were up to and when they noticed him, they decided to let him tag along and they had all come to the ruins of the Abandoned Dorm where they had coincidentally met up with their friends and despite all the stories surrounding the dorm and ties to the supernatural, James had initially been sceptical and dismissive of the possibility that the supernatural was real. He just assumed that it had all just been tricks and illusions that someone had pulled off in order to scare people into believing that it was real. He had summarised that there had been a perfectly reasonable explanation for those so-called supernatural occurrences and refused to acknowledge the possibility that they could possibly be real. However, now he was confronted with undeniable proof that it was indeed real and it was only now that he was coming to realise that in the past, he had been living in denial and it brought out a rather crippling fear that made his blood run cold. He just did not know what to think anymore. He wished that he had been right before and that it had all been just mere tricks and realising that he and the others were now trapped caused him to feel rather claustrophobic despite the fact that the cavern itself was incredibly huge. He felt his terror overtake his mind and because of it, he was no longer thinking clearly.

"Zukasu, win!" he shouted desperately, "Win, win, win!"

"Will someone shut him up?" Terrance said in frustration, getting annoyed with his friend's panicked state.

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Zukasu winced in pain as he stood up and made his way back to where he had been standing with each step seeming to take everything he had just to execute as every time he moved, it sent an overwhelmingly crippling pain shooting through his body and each time he felt it, he had to struggle to keep on his feet. It was unbearably excruciating as he felt that his body was on the verge of giving out.<p>

"What's wrong?" Trueman's taunting voice came in a tone of mock concern, "Don't tell me that you can't take the heat. This is what it's like to duel in a Shadow Game. The monsters are real and each time they wage a direct attack, the attack is real and therefore extraordinarily painful. I'm sure that that will erase any lingering doubts you may have had that this was all just some trick. Anyway, I end my turn."

Zukasu winced as he continued to make his way back to where he stood.

"Damn," he thought to himself, "He's not kidding. It hurts just to move. I doubt that I'll be able to withstand another direct attack. Even if by some miracle my life points don't drop to zero, I'll probably pass out from the pain and if that happens, he'll end up winning by default and then… who knows what he'll do."

That much was true. In Duel Monsters, if one of the players was unable to continue the duel for whatever reason, whether it be due to illness, if they collapsed suddenly or if they had run out of cards to draw from their deck or any other reason, then their opponent was automatically declared the winner and Zukasu knew that if the pain was to overwhelm him then that would end up happening; Trueman would win the duel by default and who knew what he had planned for them.

Anyway, fighting through the pain that wrought through his body, he drew from his deck and found that he had drawn, Knightmare Frame: Sutherland (1600/1200) and then he placed it on the middle monster space.

"I summon Knightmare Frame: Sutherland in defence mode," he announced as the downsized Knightmare appeared on the field then went over to where the assault rifle had landed after the Glasgow had exploded, "And just to let you in on what's happening, you see, my Assault Rifle equip spell isn't like other equip spells that leave the field if the monsters they're equipped to are destroyed, Assault Rifle stays on the field and whenever I summon another monster with Knightmare Frame in its name, it can pick it up and gain it's enhancement."

The Sutherland (2100/1200) picked up the assault rifle and then returned to its designated area and dropped into a kneeling position.

"And with that, I end my turn," Zukasu said simply with a sigh.

"Not much else I can do, is there?" he thought to himself, "Luckily I have my Knightmare Call card facedown on the field. His Tyrant Dragon's special ability allows it to attack a second time if its first attack is successful, so no doubt, its first attack will destroy my Sutherland, but when it wages its second attack, I can use Knightmare Call to save myself."

* * *

><p>"Again!" James said in desperate frustration, "Come on, Zukasu, you have to do better than that! How do you expect to win with sloppy moves like that?"<p>

Terrance groaned in frustration, sick to death of James's constant complaining. Sure, he could understand his fear and desperation since they all knew that if Zukasu lost, Trueman would come after them next and they would meet the same fate. However, there was only so much that the redhead could stand and considering the fact that James had been smugly dismissive of the supernatural before and now, being proven wrong in a way that he simply could not refute had caused his change only served to infuriate him even further as he believed that James had some nerve freaking out considering how smug he had been before.

"You have to win!" James continued to shout, going on and on, repeating the same rhetoric over and over like a broken record, "You just have to win! I don't want to be trapped down here forever! Come on, try harder, win!"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!" an unexpected voice shouted in frustration, causing Terrance and Abigail to both jump in fright at the ferocity in the tone.

Terrance had been about to lash out and scream something similar, but apparently someone else had beaten him to it and he turned to where Abigail was, wondering if it was her, but she was just as shocked and as shaken as he was and then he turned towards James and was stunned to find him on the floor with his hands clutching the front of his face and standing over him, glaring furiously down on him was a remarkably furious Blair with an outstretched fist and it soon became apparent that not only had she been the one to shout out, but she had also physically lashed out at him as well.

"Will you just shut up?" the pre-teen bluenette repeated in a quieter, but no less furious voice, "Can't you see that he's doing the best that he can? Do you think that he wants to lose? No, of course not, if he loses, then Mr Tall, Dark and Scary down there will banish him to the World of Darkness and then he'll come after us and I know that Zukasu doesn't want that."

"I know, but…" James started to say.

"I'm not done," Blair interrupted as she intensified her glare and that worked in silencing him, "Zukasu is doing the best he can, but unfortunately, his moves are governed by the cards he has in his hand and the cards he draws. It's not his fault that he had a bad draw. You don't always draw the card you need all the time. I've seen it before; players on the verge of winning their duels, but then fail to do so on account of their next draw. Duel Monsters is all about improvisation and thinking on your feet. If you don't draw the card you need, then improvise. Planning your strategy beforehand will do you no good if you draw the wrong cards. You must learn to plan your strategies as you go along and think them up right there and then. Zukasu knows this and needs to concentrate if he's to think of a way out of this predicament, but he won't be able to concentrate with you yelling at him all the time. In fact, yelling at him is a good way of breaking his concentration and causing him to lose, is that what you want?"

"Of course not," James said as he glared back up at her, momentarily forgetting his fear as the fact that he was being lectured by someone five years his junior felt like he had been made to look like a fool.

It was not so much Blair's lecture that made him feel miffed, but rather the fact that Blair was younger than he was by a considerable margin. Sure, five years may not seem like much, but the fact that the bluenette in front of him was not even a teenager yet made her lecture a rather bitter pill to swallow and the fact that it was in front of two of his friends only made it feel even worse.

"She's right, you know," Terrance spoke up before the grey-haired boy had a chance to berate the pre-teen, "Zukasu is trying his best, but your constant yelling is only going to guarantee his defeat. Now, I know that you're scared and that we're trapped. However, you have to realise that we are all on the same boat here. What happens to you will also happen to the rest of us, so don't think for one second that you're alone. Heck, Abi and I are both just as frightened as you are, but you don't see us freaking out, do you?"

James just silently shook his head as he had to admit that his friend had a point.

"How can you be so calm?" he asked finally after a few minutes of silence, "We're all going to be banished to the Shadow Realm. How can you be so calm about that?"

"We'll only be banished if Zukasu loses," Abigail explained as she looked down into the depression and saw that Zukasu was still struggling in pain from Tyrant Dragon's direct attack, "With the way you're acting, it's as if you believe that he's already lost. However, the duel is still on and Zukasu still has the lead."

"That's only because that creepy guy let him take the lead," James pointed out in an "as a matter of fact" tone.

"Yes, but the duel isn't over yet," Terrance countered as he pointed out another fact.

"But it's a Shadow Game," James said as his fear started to make a comeback.

"So, you think that automatically means that he's already lost?" Blair asked, sounding a tad bit insulted.

"You, shut up!" James snapped as he glared at the pre-teen bluenette, "You're too young to understand anything."

"You take that back!" Blair demanded in a dangerously low tone, "Just because I'm younger than you, that doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"Well you should be!" James stated with a glare, clearly not happy at this young girl proving herself to be more knowledgeable and a lot calmer than him, "Little girls like you should not be smarter than their elders."

Blair opened her mouth in complete shock and then suddenly shot James a furious glare as she clenched her fists.

"Enough!" Terrance shouted as he decided that it was time to defuse this argument, "Stop arguing, we're not going to get anything done by fighting amongst ourselves. Blair is right though, you do seem to think that because this is a Shadow Game that Zukasu's already lost."

"But he has no experience in Shadow Games," James said in an effort to defend himself.

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Terrance replied as he shot his friend a glare, telling him to keep quiet, "However, I've done research into Shadow Games. Shadow Games may seem as if the one initiating them has an unfair advantage, but in truth, this isn't true. Any stipulations that apply in Shadow Games apply to both players. However, it only seems like the one initiating the game has an unfair advantage as they take advantage of the other player's lack of knowledge and inexperience. The other player is normally oblivious at first, but as soon as the reality of their situation becomes apparent, their minds are dominated by fear and in their rush to win, they don't think their moves through and don't pay attention to their opponent's moves and that's how mostly everyone who's challenged to a Shadow Game loses and if there are additional stipulations, then the one initiating the Shadow Game would probably choose a stipulation that doesn't affect them as much as it does their opponent."

Blair and Abigail both nodded in agreement.

"So, what you're saying is that Zukasu has a chance?" James asked hopefully.

"Yes, that's exactly it," Blair said as she shot the older boy a glare, telling him she was not in the mood for his retorts, "The monsters are real and losing means losing more than just a game, but aside from that, a Shadow Game is just a regular duel. There may be added stipulations, but at the end of the day, the basic rules are still the same."

"That's right," Abigail spoke up, picking up from where the bluenette left off, "And please, oh please, don't panic so much. You're driving the rest of us insane. You're not alone in this. We're your friends and we're in this together. There's nothing to be afraid of, we're right here with you."

"Oh, I see," James said in an apologetic tone as he suddenly felt stupid for freaking out as he realised that the bespectacled girl was right.

He was not alone and he had his friends with him and all of a sudden, he felt rather ashamed at freaking out and trying to flee, since he had, in effect, attempted to abandon them and even the knowledge that he had been so caught up in his terror over the realisation that everything was real was not enough to erase the feeling. How could he have been so self-centred? He had friends and yet, he had attempted to abandon them and leave them to their fate. He suddenly found himself rather fortunate that the exits out of the cavern had been sealed off and that he could not leave, otherwise he shuddered to think of what could have happened the following day if he came across his friends and even now, he could picture them glaring at him and wanting nothing to do with him because of his cowardice.

"Sorry guys," he said with a self-loathing sigh.

"It's alright," Terrance said with a forgiving smile.

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Trueman drew a card as his turn came round and smirked as he saw that it was Stop Defence. He then placed it into the middle spelltrap slot of his duel tray.

"I play the spell card, Stop Defence," he announced as the card appeared on the field and the edges of its image started to glow as Zukasu's Sutherland automatically stood up and dropped into an attack stance, "And with this card, I can select a monster on your side of the field and switch it into attack mode and since you only have one monster out on the field, it ends up being the target by default."

Zukasu frowned and moved to switch his card from a horizontal position to a vertical position, more found that the card had moved on its own.

"Why am I so surprised?" he thought to himself, "Everything else has proven to be real, so why would my cards moving by themselves be so surprising?"

He had to admit that the prospect that he was in a real Shadow Game scared him, though he refused to let his growing fear dominate him. He knew that if he was going to win, then he had to remain calm and think his moves through. He had overheard Terrance's explanation on Shadow Games and he had to admit that he also recalled reading up on Shadow Games and it had pretty much documented what Terrance had said. Trueman did not have an unfair advantage over him. Aside from the monsters being real and how the direct attack from Tyrant Dragon had been excruciatingly painful, it was just a regular duel with the same basic rules and he knew that Shadow Games with added stipulations did not affect the usual rules of the game. However, he knew that if he did lose, then he would probably end up losing his soul as well as the game.

"I just have to make sure that I don't lose, won't I?" he said to himself.

"Tyrant Dragon," Trueman said, bringing the prep-school graduate out of his thoughts, "Attack Mr Rikuguru's Sutherland."

In response, Tyrant Dragon jumped over to the Sutherland, raising its front leg and then brought it down in a diagonal slash and practically severed its left arm from its body and destroying the front of its head. The Sutherland then went flying and Zukasu only managed to barely move to the side to avoid having his monster barrelling into him. Once the mecha hit the wall of the depression, it then exploded and disappeared.

**Zukasu**: 300 – **Trueman**: 700

"And not only that," Trueman went on as his grin widened maliciously, "Whenever Tyrant Dragon destroys a monster in battle, he can attack a second time, so, Tyrant Dragon, attack Mr Rikuguru directly once again."

Tyrant Dragon responded by lunging over to Zukasu, but Zukasu just responded by pushing the spell/trap activation button on his duel disk.

"I play the trap card, Knightmare Call," he announced as his facedown card rose up.

The image depicted on the card showed a Burai Knightmare Frame about to unleash a punch on a Britannian soldier in the middle of a ruined city and a Sutherland Knightmare Frame racing to help.

"I can only activate this when my opponent declares an attack that will drop my life points to zero," Zukasu explained as Trueman, first the first time since the duel started looked absolutely stunned, "And once activated, I can take a level-four or lower Knightmare Frame monster from my deck and summon it to the field in defence mode and it takes the hit instead."

He then took out his deck from its slot and trolled through his cards and selected one of his Knightmare Frame: Gloucester cards and placed it in the middle monster space of his duel disk and the Gloucester (1800/1400) appeared on the field in a kneeling position.

"And get this, if the attacking monster happens to have a piercing effect, then that piercing effect is automatically negated," Zukasu went on explain as Tyrant Dragon then turned towards the kneeling Gloucester and brought its claws down on it from the side, sending it flying into the wall of the depression before it exploded an disappeared.

"Lucky move," Trueman growled, sounding a bit agitated, clearly not expecting Zukasu's last-minute move.

* * *

><p>"Phew, that was close," James said from the side-lines.<p>

"Yeah, Trueman obviously must've been so caught up in the prospect of winning that he completely forgot about Zukasu's facedown card," Blair said, looking impressed, but then her look became series, "However, he has to make it count and draw something worthwhile."

"I concur," Terrance said with a nod, "It's his turn and with only four cards in his hand, he really needs something that can enable him to summon something capable of standing up to that dragon and not only that, but hopefully something that can end this duel."

"But he has no monsters on the field and in order to summon something capable of standing toe-to-toe with that dragon, he'll need to either sacrifice two monsters or summon a powerful monster to the field via special means," Abigail pointed out, "Twenty-nine hundred attack points is no laughing matter and it'll probably take a level-eight or higher monster to take it down."

"Not to mention a monster with over twenty-nine hundred attack points," Blair put in, suddenly joining the others in their conversation.

* * *

><p>"My draw," Zukasu said from back down in the depression as he placed his hand over his deck and hesitated.<p>

"Gee, things aren't looking good," he thought as he stared up at Tyrant Dragon and the dragon responded by growling at him, "I really have to make this draw count, otherwise, regardless of what I draw, Trueman will surely win on his next turn."

"Make your move," Trueman said in a tone of impatient irritation, clearly still reeling from being caught off guard at Zukasu's surprise move.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Zukasu thought as he drew his card and clenched his eyes shut and from a few seconds, refused to open them, as if afraid of looking at the card he had just drawn, afraid that it was totally worthless.

"Hurry up!" Trueman demanded in growing impatience, "I don't have all day, just make your move so I can defeat you already."

Rather hesitantly, Zukasu slowly opened his right eye and carefully glanced at the card he had drawn and then looked hopeful as he saw that he had drawn, Card of Sanctity, one of the few knowingly legal cards in his deck.

He placed in in the middle spell/trap slot and the card suddenly appeared on the field before it emitted a golden glow.

"I play the spell card, Card of Sanctity," he announced simply, "And this basically lets us both draw till we're holding six cards."

He then drew two cards and Trueman drew six since his hand was empty.

Looking at his hand, he saw that he had drawn Pot of Greed and Honorary Pilot and added it to his hand that consisted of Yggdrasil Drive Explosion, Jousting Lance, Knightmare Frame: Lancelot and Knightmare Shield.

"So far so good," he thought to himself, "Now all I have to do is play Pot of Greed and hope for the best."

"And next, I play the spell card, Pot of Greed," he went on announcing as he placed his Pot of Greed card in the spell/trap slot to the left of the one in the middle and like what happened when Trueman had played the same card, the image on the card appeared on the field and gave a sinister laugh, "And as you already know, since you played the same card earlier, this lets me draw two additional cards from my deck."

He then drew two new cards from his deck, bringing the total number of cards in his hand up to eight and then looking at his cards, his eyes widened in astonished disbelief as he just could not believe what he had drawn.

"Wow, this is just…" he said in amazement, "Wow."

"What's wrong?" Trueman asked, still rather impatient, "Just make your move already."

Zukasu then levelled a gaze at Trueman and then the edges of his lips curved upwards to form a massive grin.

"Okay, if you insist," he said simply as he beamed with confidence.

"Huh?" Trueman said in confusion as he was caught off guard by Zukasu's apparent boast in confidence, but then just shrugged it off and burst into a grin of his own, "So, you've decided to accept your defeat, have you? How admirable, but it won't save you."

"Hardly," Zukasu replied as his expression became serious, "I now have all the cards in my hand that will guarantee me my victory."

"What?" Trueman said in alarm and disbelief, "No, impossible, you're bluffing."

"It would be pointless to bluff," Zukasu pointed out simply as he levelled a glare at Trueman, "Not only would you see through it, you'd still win. However, I'm not bluffing and I'll prove it."

He then reached for his Honorary Pilot card and placed it on the middle monster space of his Duel Disk.

"First I summon the Honorary Pilot," he went on to explain as the Honorary Pilot (300/300) appeared on the field, first as an orb of golden light and then the orb started to form into a human shape and then the Honorary Pilot appeared, causing everyone from the side-lines to gasp in both astonishment and confusion.

The Honorary Pilot was basically Zukasu's twin with the same messy brown eye and emerald green eyes, though he did had a lighter skin tone. He wore a white and dark blue, almost black jumpsuit with a golden outline. The areas round the feet were black with the black coming up the front of the shin till a quarter of the way up and forming a rounded end with white on either side of the shin and round the back. The majority of the jumpsuit was whit with two golden lines, one for each leg coming up from the knee right to the centre of each chest plate muscle About three quarters of the way up his chest was a thick golden line and above that was where the dark blue was situated and ran down his sleeves till three quarters of the way between his elbows and wrists, in which the white returned as his hands were covered with white gloves. There was also white on his shoulders with a golden border and the whit ran down to the sides of his shoulders and at each side was a green diamond shape with the same golden outline. Gower the white at his shoulder also ran up the sides and back of his neck, forming a collar, completed separate from the dark blue which was at the front and underneath the collar and at each side of the front of the collar were a pair of identical golden symbols that would look right at home on a coat of arms.

* * *

><p>"What the hell?" James said in confusion, "Did Zukasu just summon himself?"<p>

"Now that is inexplicable," Terrance said in agreement with James, "It's not like Kaibaman in which Kaiba had the card modelled after himself on purpose."

"Gee, I wonder what this could possibly mean," Abigail said in confusion.

Blair stared down at the card with a serious pondering look on her face.

"This is indeed strange," she thought to herself, "And Euphie has a strange sense of déjà vu when it comes to Zukasu and according to Yumi, she zoned out whenever she saw Zukasu's Knightmare Frame monsters as if she recognised them and yet, those cards aren't on any registry of Duel Monsters cards."

That did pique her curiosity. She did recall Yumi mentioning Zukasu's duel with Stella in which, according to her, Euphemia had apparently blacked out upon witnessing them in action and according to Yumi, Euphemia could not remember where she had seen them before and yet, she had known their names the moment they were summoned before Zukasu had announced their names and yet, she had apparently forgot what it was she had been thinking about the moment she had been brought back to reality.

"There's a connection there," the bluenette thought to herself, "I just know it."

* * *

><p>Back down in the depression, Trueman just scoffed at Zukasu's newly summoned monster, apparently not all that bothered over the resemblance between the monster and its owner.<p>

"That's going to end the duel, don't make me laugh," he said dismissively, "That pitiful monster doesn't have nearly enough attack points to stand up to my dragon."

"I'm well aware of that," Zukasu said dismissively, "However, when Honorary Pilot's out on the field, I can sacrifice him to summon my Knight Frame: Lancelot from my hand," Zukasu announced as he reached for his Knightmare Frame: Lancelot card.

"Huh?" the Honorary Pilot said, apparently blinking in confusion as he looked around frantically as if unsure of where he was, "What's going on here? Where am I?"

However, his eyes widened in shock and fear as he looked up into the eyes of the Tyrant Dragon in front of him and the dragon just responded by growling at him.

"What the heck's going on?" he asked in confusion as he backed away from the dragon and then turned to run and then his eyes widened as his confusion only increased when he saw Zukasu, "Who the hell are you? You look like me, but I never had any brothers or sisters, especially not an identical twin brother."

Zukasu's eyes widened in surprise at his "monster's" strange behaviour. However, shaking it off as a product of the Shadow Game, he proceeded to removed his Honorary Pilot card from its space and the Honorary Pilot's eyes widened in shock upon seeing his image depicted on the card, but before he could speak, he transformed into a silhouette of golden light and vanished as Zukasu discarded the card to the graveyard and replaced it with his Knightmare Frame: Lancelot (2900/2800) in the same monster space and the Lancelot appeared on the field.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news," Trueman said with a smirk, "But your Lancelot's attack points are equal to my Tyrant Dragon's. If they do battle, they'll destroy one another."

"And all I need is the right card and then I can summon Des Gardius from the graveyard like I originally intended," he added in his thoughts, feeling rather confident with himself, "With four hundred more attack points than his Lancelot, I'll have this duel won."

He had used Armageddon Knight's effect to send Masked Beast Des Gardius to the graveyard in the hopes of using Monster Reborn to summon it from the graveyard along with Tyrant Dragon, but unfortunately when he played Cost Down, he had no other cards in his hand to discard and so had been forced to discard Monster Reborn and use Tyrant Dragon as his backup, but seeing as things had not played out the way he had intended, thanks to Zukasu's surprise facedown, he now saw an opportunity to enact his original plan so that, even if Zukasu did have a trap set up to save him, against two monsters, he'd ultimately lose.

"I'm well aware of that," Zukasu said with a triumphant smirk, "But you've forgotten that I played Pot of Greed."

He then took two cards in his right hand and showed them both to Trueman and his eyes widened in shock from behind his sunglasses as he saw the two cards, which were basically two copies of the same equip spell card, Maser Vibration Sword, which depicted an image of a red-bladed sword with a golden guard and a black handle with a golden bottom and Trueman realised that those were the cards that he had drawn from using Pot of Greed, but what shocked him was when he read the text on the card and suddenly realised what Zukasu was intending to do and suddenly, he knew that he had lost the duel.

"Impossible!" he gasped in shock, "For such an occurrence to occur would have taken a miracle."

"Yes, a miracle," Zukasu said with a nod, "And I plan on ensuring that this miracle doesn't go to waste because now, I play the spell card, Maser Vibration Sword."

He then inserted both Maser Vibration Sword cards into the spell/trap slots on either side of the one in the middle and the cards both appeared on the field and then their images came out of the cards. However, instead of the red blades depicted in the image, each blade had two pointed grey prongs with the gap in the middle coming to a rounded end near the bottom.

"And by equipping this to my Lancelot, it gains an additional four hundred attack points," Zukasu announced with a triumphant smirk as he knew that he had already won, "And as you can guess, I'm equipping it with two and that gives it a grand total of eight hundred additional attack points."

The Lancelot (3700/2800) grabbed the pair of swords and then suddenly, the gap between the prongs started to glow a deep pink colour before the blades transformed into complete blades and were red in colour as depicted in the image of them.

"Now, Lancelot, end this duel with Crisscross Slash," Zukasu commanded as he pointed at Trueman's Tyrant Dragon and the Lancelot zoomed towards it and raised its sword and brought each one down in a diagonal angle on opposite sides for an X style slash and the Tyrant Dragon roared in pain as it took a few steps back and then let brought its end up and let out an almighty roar as it suddenly became enveloped with light and disappeared.

**Zukasu (winner)**: 300 – **Trueman**: 0

Trueman then let out an almighty scream of his own, mimicking his defeated dragon as he was suddenly enveloped with black flames and then transformed into black mist and then appeared to explode as the mist dissipated and to everyone's relief, not only did Trueman vanish, but the black mist covering the exits had vanished as well.

"Game, set and match!" Zukasu said, mimicking his winning pose from when he had defeated Stella, though this time, there was no opponent for him to talk to and he just performed the pose to the empty space where Trueman had been.

* * *

><p>"Alright, Zukasu did it," James said, breathing a sigh of relief and Abigail nodded with a smile as she felt the temperature of the cavern return to normal and the black mist that sealed of the exits also started to dissipate.<p>

However, Terrance stared down into the depression with a rather inquiring look on his face as he recalled the behaviour of Zukasu's Honorary Pilot monster and he could honestly say that despite it being a Shadow Game, the "monster" did not exhibit the normal behaviour of a Duel Monster. He knew that in Duel Monsters, the monsters were usually just holograms that responded to their owners' commands and throughout the duel, the monsters had all done the same despite being real. However, the fact that the Honorary Pilot had been an exception to this rule had gotten him thinking and from the looks of it, Zukasu had been equally confused, but he must have passed it off as a product of the Shadow Game or one of Trueman's tricks to try and throw him off his game. However, somehow Terrance knew that that had not been the case as the Honorary Pilot looked like a person who had been teleported into the cavern and was genuinely confused and disoriented and had no idea what was going on.

"Most strange," he noted to himself, "I've never heard of something like that before. Just who was that?"

However, just then, Zukasu came up and from the looks of it, he still looked as if he was suffering from the effects of Tyrant Dragon's direct attack and Abigail had to help him up out of the depression.

"Zukasu, my god, are you alright?" she said, giving the prep-school graduate a look of concern, "Maybe we should get you to the infirmary."

"No," Zukasu said, shaking his head, "We're not going back to the infirmary. Somehow, I think that we're not supposed to be here and if Duel Academy discovered that we had ventured out here, then we may end up being faced with expulsion."

Everyone else cringed at that, including Blair since she knew that Duel Academy had made the Abandoned Dorm off limits and despite the mystery of the disappeared students being solved, as far as she was aware, that rule was still in effect.

"However, we can't leave yet," Zukasu went on saying, bringing the pre-teen out of her thoughts, "Don't forget, Yumi's been kidnapped and Euphie went after her."

"Oh yeah," James said as his eyes widened in shock as he remembered Euphemia and Yumi and then a growing sense of fear and urgency started to build up inside him, "Of course, Euphie was the main target. That Trueman guy had only been sent ta keep us from interferin'."

It was then that everyone's eyes widened as a horrifying realisation washed over them.

"Oh no, if Euphie was the main target, then that means…" Abigail said as a feeling of terrifying dread crept into her mind.

"No doubt she's been challenged to a Shadow Game as well!" Terrance finished as he came to the same horrifying conclusion.

"We have to help her!" James said with a sense of urgency as he started to race down the corridor in which Euphemia had gone down.

"Wow, a short while ago, he was so scared at discovering that the supernatural was real that he was all for fleeing and now he's the first one to go head-first back into another potential nightmare just after we were released from one," Blair said simply as she remembered how James had gotten so caught up in his fear that he had unwittingly tried to abandon them.

"We're his friends," Terrance said as he started to walk down the same corridor James had run down, "I think our speech in helping him calm down made him realise that and he just wants to help Euphie and Yumi. I highly doubt he wants to think that he's abandoning us."

He then burst into a run and disappeared into the darkness down the corridor.

"That's right, I think that James realises what he tried to do and is going back into the nightmare in an attempt to make amends," Abigail said before she followed her brother.

"Well then, shall we get going?" Zukasu said with a wince as he made an attempt to go after his friends, but then stumbled as the pain shot through his body.

"Are you going to be okay, Zukasu?" Blair asked in concern, "That was a really bruising attack you suffered, I think you need to go to the infirmary and get yourself looked at."

Zukasu just smiled and then chuckled with a smile.

"Thanks for your concern he said with a smile, "I appreciate it.

He then took a brief pause as his expression hardened into serious determination

"However, I must go and save Euphie," he went on in a tone that made it clear to the bluenette that he was not going to change his mind, "I was lucky. However, since Trueman's boss… whoever he is, is targeting Euphie, Euphie's probably in the same predicament I'm in and unfortunately, I fear that she may not be so lucky."

He then got up and, fighting past the pain, he made a run down the corridor with Blair following suit.

"I understand where you're coming from, Zukasu, I really do," she thought to herself, "However, somehow I get the feeling that Euphie can handle herself. As for you, you managed to pull off quite the feat, defeating Trueman like that. However, like I said before, in doing so, you've only made him stronger and next time, should you cross paths again, he'll be even tougher to defeat."

* * *

><p><strong>Preview of the next chapter<strong>

Euphemia finds Yumi tied upside down in a small cavern underneath the ruins of the Abandon Dorm

"_Hold on, Yumi, I'll get you free," Euphemia says in urgency._

"_Wait, Euphie-chan, it's a trap," Yumi said in fearful urgency._

As Euphemia walks over to try and free Yumi, evil laughter suddenly echoes throughout the room and Titan rises up from the ground.

"_Welcome, Euphemia Felixton," Titan says with an evil chuckle, "Or should I say, Euphemia li Britannia?"_

"_Huh, Excuse me," Euphemia says in confusion._

As Titan speaks to her, Euphemia denies what he's telling her.

"_Listen, Mister, you've got the wrong person," Euphemia says in a sincere tone, though inwardly, she's unsure of herself, "I'm not the Euphemia you're looking for."_

"_I beg to differ, my dear," Titan says in a sinisterly calm tone, which unnerves Euphemia._

Titan goes on to explain that he's going to duel Euphemia in a Shadow Game, but Euphemia waves him off sceptically.

"_Oh come on," Euphemia scoffs dismissively, "Shadow Game, whatever. They don't exist."_

"_Then allow me to prove it you," Titan replies still in his sinisterly calm tone._

"_I think you better listen to him, Euphie-chan," Yumi says from where she's tied up, "I don't want to believe it either, but he managed to convince me that he's the real deal."_

Euphemia and Titan stand facing one another and activate they respective duel equipment.

"DUEL!" they both yell in unison.

**Euphemia**: 4000 – **Titan**: 4000

Euphemia ultimately wins, but during the duel, she becomes convinced that Shadow Games and the supernatural are indeed real.

Afterwards, black mist appears round Titan's mask and flies round the round before forming into a demon of grey and black smoke with a serpentine bottom, long arms with curved clawed fingers, a dragon's head and two glowing blue eyes with a blue glowing vertical oval on its forehead.

"_You may have won this time, Euphemia, but rest assured, this is just the beginning," the demon says before dissipating._

"_Wow, freaky," Euphemia says in confusion, "Just what does that thing want with me?"_

Afterwards, Euphemia watches in horror as Titan it suddenly swarmed by the shadow blobs that cause him to sink into the floor.

"_No, not again!" Titan shrieks, "This is the third time this has happened. Euphemia, help me!"_

Euphemia is petrified as Titan begs for help as she comes to realise that she would have suffered the same fate if she had lost.

However, upon recovering after Titan's fully been consumed, she goes and helps untie Yumi. However, untying Yumi in her current position and wrapping her arms round her waist to prevent her from falling cause Euphemia to fall over and both girls end up in a rather awkwardly suggestive positive just as James and the others arrive.

"_Wow, it may not be what it looks like, but it's still freakin' hot," James says with a perverted smile_

"_Get back here you disgusting hentai!" Yumi says as she gets up and starts chasing James back down the way he came and Abigail joins in after hearing Yumi's comments._

However, what everyone doesn't know is that they're being watched and one of their watchers makes a call to Edward Harrington.

"_Finally," Edward says in excitement, "I now have something I can use to expel that pink-haired pest and giving my niece hassle."_

As everyone emerges from the basement and make their way back to their dorms, little do they know that a raven perched on a tree in watching them closely.

Meanwhile in a caravan parked on a hill in England near Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains, the raven's vision is being projected into a crystal ball and is concentrated on Euphemia as a woman sits at a table with a deck of tarot cards and has the High Priestess laid out in front of her.

"_So this is the High Priestess," the woman muses to herself, "Euphemia Felixton and yet, that's not her real name. I need to know more, much more."_

In an unknown location, two Trueman clones stand over an image of Euphemia as they discuss what to do about her.

However, the demon that freed Titan from the Shadow Realm appears and tells them to leave Euphemia alone for now as the image of Euphemia that the two clones were looking at suddenly transforms into an image of Nunnally sitting in her wheelchair next to a fireplace.

_"Next time: Shadow Game Tasters part 2," the demon says in a deep sinister tone as he stares at Nunnally, "It's still early days to deal with Euphemia and I was just giving her a preview of what's to come anyway. It mattered not whether she won or lost as I would have won anyway. Anyway, I have a variety of different plans on dealing with you, Euphemia li Britannia."_

In the image, Nunnally shivers.

* * *

><p><strong>Card of the chapter<strong>

**Name** – Knightmare Call

**Image** – A Burai Knightmare Frame about to unleash a punch on a Britannian soldier in the middle of a ruined city and a Sutherland Knightmare Frame racing to help.

**Type** – Normal Trap

**Info** – Activate only when an opponent's monster declares an attack that is capable of ending the duel. Select one Level-Four or lower Knightmare Frame monster from your deck and summon it to the field in the defence position and the attacking monster's target will be redirected to the defending monster. If the attacking monster has a Piercing Effect then it is automatically negated.

"_Gee that's the second time the Card of the chapter hasn't been a monster card," Jaden says in wonder._

"_Of course, it's the card that helped Zukasu turn the duel around, that's why it's the Card of the chapter," the author explains._

"_By the way, about Zukasu's Honorary Pilot, was that…" Jaden starts to say._

"_Yep," the author says with a nod._

"_And is he…?" Jaden starts to ask, looking concerned._

"_Heavens no, he's not dead," the author says, "And that will be made apparent next chapter as he'll be making a guest appearance."_

"_Oh, I see," Jaden sighed in relief._

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong> – Gee, it's been almost a year since I updated this fic; about nine months and two weeks to be exact. Anyway, sorry for the delay. My mind just got occupied with other things, plus I was unsure of whom to have at the beginning wondering about Euphemia's missing body and eventually, I settled for the amnesic Lelouch as the first of many people who know nothing about what actually happened and only heard of the disappearance through rumours. Anyway, as for the Yu-Gi-Oh! end, when it comes to backstories and events during the show, I'm aware of the 4Kids edits to the show and of the original Japanese versions, so I decided to mix them up and add a bit of both. By the way, if you've noticed in this chapter that I have started to apply the use of macrons and other text symbols etc. since I've discovered how to apply them and before I even started writing this chapter, I went back and applied made changes to the nine other previous chapters, correcting grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes that I missed before and adding in appropriate text symbols and made improvements, so feel free to go back and read over them.


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